Book Review: Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews

Murder by Page One
by Olivia Matthews (Matthews) (pseudonym of Patricia Sargeant)

Disclaimer: I am a big fan of the murder-mystery movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries network, which tend to be amateur detective stories featuring a sleuth with a particularly distinctive background — florist, antiques dealer, crossword puzzle editor, criminology professor, wedding planner and in the culinary field, baker/caterer/gourmet chef. They follow a certain formula, in which the central sleuth, usually a woman, has a give-and-take relationship with a law-enforcement official, who usually doesn’t want them interfering in an investigation, but ultimately our sleuth’s specialized knowledge in their specific profession gives them insight into the location of the murder, the psychology of the murderer, or the motivation behind the crime. If the series of TV-movies lasts more than just 2 or 3 films, then invariably a complicated romantic relationship will start heating up between our amateur sleuth and the detective (or FBI agent, etc.)

 

So, when I saw that Hallmark’s book-printing division, Hallmark Publishing, had published several new mystery novels, specifically written to capture the tone and style of their successful TV-movies, but featuring all-new, never-before-seen characters and settings, I had to give them a try. Following new series by Tracy Gardner (The Shepherd Sisters) in 2019 and Amanda Flower (Piper and Porter) in 2020, this third new series (The Peach Coast Library mysteries) was by Patricia Sargeant, writing as Olivia Matthews, and its central character is a librarian. Marvella “Marvey” Harris is a transplant to Peach Coast, Georgia from New York City. She’s been hired to boost the local library’s profile and increase customer traffic, through community engagement. As part of that, she’s attending a local writing group’s group book-signing event at the local independent book store, owned by her friend Jo. When one of the writing group, whose first novel just came out, is discovered dead in the back storage room of the bookstore, the police suspect Marvey’s friend Jo. Together with the rich and handsome young Spencer Holt, a member of the library’s board of directors, Marvey promises her friend Jo that she’ll help discover more likely suspects, since the police don’t seem to want to do so themselves.

 

The mystery is fairly typical, and in this first entry, the characters are all kind of cardboard — they haven’t really developed full yet. I love the library and bookstore backgrounds, and Marvey’s team of library co-workers shows some promise. But, just like many of the Hallmark Movies & Mystery channel’s movies, there are a lot of implausible elements and coincidental plot developments, not to mention some inconsistencies that a tighter editorial oversight might have fixed. Still…I’ll give the second one in this series a chance, to see if it improves — I did find enough about this appealing to see if there’s growth down the line. If you’re looking for a simple amateur sleuth mystery with characters who love both libraries and bookstores, you’ll likely appreciate this one.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the next in this Peach Coast Mysteries series, Murder Out of Character also by Olivia Matthews.)

 

( Hallmark’s official Peach Coast Library mystery series web page ) | ( publisher’s official Olivia Matthews web page ) | ( official Patricia Sargeant web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Forgotten Bookmarks by Michael Popek

Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages
by Michael Popek (002 Pop)

Working in a library, we tend to see a lot of…unusual…things left behind in books that are returned to the libraries. Over the years, we’ve even occasionally had displays put up highlighting the odd bookmarks that customers have neglected to reclaims — from the commonplace (receipts, scrap paper, photos, etc.) to the hard-to-explain (a piece of bacon).

Therefore, the title of this slim volume immediately resonated with me. Forgotten Bookmarks is, as the title suggests, a celebration of the odd things left behind in books that were handled by author Michael Popek in his full-time job as an antiquarian book dealer. He breaks the types of “left behind” objects into broad categories, then shows photographs of the object in question (sometimes with either a blown-up image to illustrate it more clearly, and sometimes with a transcription of the text if it’s hard to read — handwritten notes, etc.), although with a photo of the book the “bookmark” was found within. There is very little explanatory text — Popek usually lets the “lost bookmark” speak for itself.

This is a fun, quirky little read, which should especially appeal to book lovers — those who prefer to hold a physical book in their hands over the more clinical experience of reading e-books. A little goes a long way however — I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more if I’d spread it out over more time, reading just a few entries at a time. Instead, I read it pretty much in a single sitting, and the “lost bookmarks” tended to all sort of blur together.

And, honestly, though many of the remnants in this volume, particularly those which included handwritten notes, were heart-warming, on the “weird” end of the spectrum, I’ve seen far weirder things left in library books that Popek chronicles in his bookseller experience.

[ official Forgotten Bookmarks and author website ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The Bookshop

The Bookshop
[DVD Bookshop]

I’m a sucker for almost any story set in a quaint old bookstore or library, so this film caught my eye in the libraries’ DVD collection.

Emily Mortimer plays Florence Green, a young-ish widow who takes a chance to fulfill a life-long dream by setting up a small bookshop in an English coastal town. In the process, she incurs the ire of a local wealthy townswoman, Violet Gamart (played by Patricia Clarkson), who had been eyeing the property where the bookstore is for an arts center that is a passion project for her. On the other hand, Florence’s efforts cause her to be admired and supported by a local eccentric, Edmund Brundish (played by Bill Nighy), and she also gains the friendship of a local girl, Christine (played by Honor Kneafsey), who comes to work in the store after school.

This is a quiet little film, beautifully shot, which has moments of increasing intensity. The performances are all understated but still impressive. Bill Nighy is especially charming as the eccentric reader Mr. Brundish, who is driven to abandon his isolation in order to support Florence’s dream. And Honor, as Christine, is a stunning young actress.

I’ll have to admit that I had not read the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald on which this film is based, so I had no idea where the plot was going. In the end, while I did enjoy the film, I was somewhat unsatisfied with the ending, which drops my overall rating for the film by a few points. But it is definitely worth watching for the excellent performances and beautiful views of English seaside life.

[Also available in traditional print format.] [ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Bookshop web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New BooksTalk Booklist: Bibliomysteries!

Former Lincoln City Libraries staff member Mary S. (now with the Nebraska Library Commission), was the guest BooksTalk presenter at Bethany Branch Library on April 12, 2019. Her theme was mystery fiction dealing with books, literature, libraries and bookstores.

Check out her list of recommended reading at the following link:

Bibliomysteries

Footnotes* From the World's Greatest Bookstores by Bob Eckstein

Footnotes* From the World’s Greatest Bookstores (*True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers)
by Bob Eckstein [002 Eck] 

This one caught my eye on the New Books display at the downtown library, with a cozy watercolor illustration of a charming bookstore on the cover, and an unusual physical design — a hardback cover that folds back over the top of the interior contents. Bob Eckstein is not just a writer, but also an illustrator and cartoonish. His works have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

For this book, which was inspired by a magazine article about charming bookstores in New York City, Eckstein pairs evocative watercolor paintings with an information page about each international bookstore being profiled. The paintings also incorporate quotes of hand-lettered remembrances from customers, owners, booksellers and celebrities about each individual bookstore. Eckstein started with a list of 150 noteworthy bookstores, and ended up with 75 within this volume’s pages. Covering the entire world, the bookstores profiled range from quaint little shops in out-of-the-way places in the U.S. to significant independent bookstores in India, Thailand, China, South America, France, England and more. Even The Antiquarian, a longtime staple in Omaha’s Old Market, which moved to Brownville, NE several years ago, is included.

The stories told, of odd customers, or famous authors and events, are quite memorable. The story that stuck with me was of David Bowie helping a harried bookstore employee to set up a book display, and she had no idea who he was. I always make it a point to check out unusual bookstores in any city I visit on vacation — for instance, check out MacDonald’s Book Shop in Estes Park, or The Tattered Cover in Denver, or Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s in Minneapolis — and this book makes me want to visit quite a few more! (Sadly, several of my old favorites, including The Mystery Book Store in Omaha, and Murder By the Book in Denver, are no more!)

[ publisher’s official Footnotes From the World’s Greatest Bookstores web site ] | [ official Bob Eckstein web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
by Robin Sloan

Clay Jannon is a computer techie who has lost his job due to the Great Recession. He takes a night clerk job with Penumbra's bookstore just to have money coming in and is intrigued by the weird characters who visit the mysterious bookstore. And this bookstore doesn't stock the usual titles either -- they are obscure, unknown books Clay isn't able to locate anywhere else in the world. Clay recruits his friends to figure out the secret goings-on. Among other things, we learn about a secret society trying to solve a 500-year-old puzzle. Partway through this book you'll realize you are on a Tolkien-type of adventure as Clay and his group find themselves pulled into solving that same puzzle. There are many humorous asides with references to sci-fi/fantasy, familiar authors, Harry Potter, and a dungeons & dragons-type of game. There's also a touch of history, a secret subterranean library, codes, thefts, and secret passageways. See if you can figure out the actual historical figures and events as opposed to the fictional amalgams that also populate the story. Keep in mind, "penumbra" means "something partially hidden." This was one of my favorite books so far this year -- it felt like such a book lover's tale. The author's writing style is easy and immediately draws you into the characters and the story. And for added fun -- the cover glows in the dark. -- recommended by Charlotte K. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ official Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore page on the official Robin Sloan web site ] 

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!