Murder in Volume: 06/13/24

Murder in Volume by D.R. Meredith and Mara Lynne Thomas (Narrator) (2000) is the start of Megan Clark mystery series. Megan Clark, with a PhD in forensic anthropology and paleopathology, convinces her long time friend, Ryan, to join a mystery reading club, Murder by the Yard. A few weeks into the meetings one of their members is murdered right outside the bookshop where they meet.

I'm mostly interested now in starting more recent series if I'm going to start a new to me series. However, six years ago when I was trying to start the Cat in the Stacks mystery series, I accidentally checked out the third book in this series. Now that I'm current with the Miranda James series I thought it would be fun to try the D.R. Meredith series.

Murder in Volume is unusual compared to modern day mysteries because it has alternating points of view between Megan and Ryan. The only other contemporary one I can think of that does this is the Haunted Bookshop series by Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle, although more recent volumes have moved away from the alternating POV.

Megan is described (in Ryan's sections) as being Gen-X. However, she's clearly written by someone who isn't Gen-X. She's way too obsessed with how she's perceived and her word choice for describing the sexism she experiences as a woman is straight out of the Boomer lexicon. I feel that she was made younger than Ryan to appeal to younger readers. So many mysteries seem to star women in their mid to late twenties regardless of the author's age.

The actual puzzle of who the murderer was and why was easy. There's an eye witness account obfuscated somewhat by his extreme youth that still contains an accurate physical description of one of the suspects. Knowing later what that suspect does for a living makes the motive blatantly obvious. Despite all that, I did enjoy the book and the puzzle solving.

The second book is By Hook or By Crook (2001)

Five stars

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