Book Review: Chapter and Curse by Elizabeth Penney

Chapter and Curse
Author: Elizabeth Penney
Series: The Cambridge Bookshop Series (Book 1)
Publication: St. Martin's Paperbacks (September 28, 2021)

Description: "With its bucolic British setting, engaging heroine, and unsolved murder dating back decades, Elizabeth Penney has penned the perfect cozy."–Ellen Byron, USA Today Bestselling Author

Librarian Molly Kimball and her mother, Nina, need a change. So when a letter arrives from Nina’s Aunt Violet in Cambridge, England requesting their help running the family bookshop, they jump at the chance.

Thomas Marlowe—Manuscripts and Folios, is one of the oldest bookshops in Cambridge, and—unfortunately—customers can tell. When Molly and Nina arrive, spring has come to Cambridge and the famed Cambridge Literary Festival is underway. Determined to bring much-needed revenue to the bookstore, Molly invites Aunt Violet’s college classmate and famed poet Persephone Brightwell to hold a poetry reading in the shop. But the event ends in disaster when a guest is found dead—with Molly’s great-aunt’s knitting needle used as the murder weapon. While trying to clear Violet and keep the struggling shop afloat, Molly sifts through secrets past and present, untangling a web of blackmail, deceit, and murder.

My Thoughts: Molly Kimball and her mother Nina get a chance to change their lives when they are invited by Nina's aunt to come help run the family bookshop in Cambridge, England. The recently widowed Nina and the soon-to-be unemployed Molly are both eager for the change. 

They arrive and find that Thomas Marlow Manuscripts and Folios is in need of a refresh. It has been in Nina's family for hundreds of years by Nina's Aunt Violet is having problems keeping the business going. Violet secured a loan from another cousin but cousin Clive is not putting pressure on Violet to repay the loan or he'll sell the bookshop to a big box bookstore. 

Molly has the idea of playing into the Cambridge book festival by hosting a poetry reading by one of Violet's college classmates who has become a famous poet. In fact, the whole college crew has gotten back together including Mytle who is a near neighbor of the bookstore and who was never much liked by any of the group.

When Myrtle is found dead in the garden during the reading, Violet becomes a prime suspect because she was stabbed with one of Violet's pink knitting needles. But many of the other college friends and some of the various neighbors also have reasons to want Myrtle dead. 

Molly is determined to find the killer to clear her great-aunt's name. Along the way she uncovers a number of secrets and even solves a very old murder that had been passed off as a suicide. 

This was an entertaining story with an intriguing set of characters. I liked the budding romance with bike shop owner Kieran. I also like Molly's new adopted cat Puck. Fans of cozies will enjoy this story which has it all: great setting, cute pets, and a new romance along with an entertaining mystery.

Favorite Quote:

I'd sort of been joking about the whiskey but I didn't bother to object. Leaning back in the chair, I patted my poor traumatized cat and pondered the situation. 

Had someone just tried to kill me? Oddly, I was able to consider this in a fairly detached manner, which meant I was probably in shock.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.