Prologue to Murder: 12/03/23

Prologue to Murder by Lauren Elliott and Karen White (Narrator) (2019) is the second book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore mystery series. When the head librarian goes missing and is later found dead in an underground utility vault, Miss Newsy accuses Addie Greyborne. Frustrated by the libelous gossip, she teams up with the town's new medical examiner to solve the case.

One trope in seaside based cozy mysteries is the lure of pirate treasure. Prologue to Murder attacks this one by expanding the town's history and Addie's family tree. While the inclusion of pirate treasure seems far fetched in many mysteries (and often results in the treasure angle being a hoax), Elliott does the work to make the lore seem like a plausible addition to her seaside town.

Solving both mysteries come down to what Addie is best at: research through historical documents. A lot of the novel's time is spent on describing her research and relating her findings. That approach to mystery solving will either work or not for you depending on how into primary source research you are.

The third book is Murder in the First Edition (2019)

Five stars

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