Brenda H. (booksinvt) - , reviewed on 7/30/2019 + 465 more book reviews

Can't Judge a Book By Its Murder is the debut of the Main Street Book Club Mysteries series set in the small town of Sugar Springs, Mississippi and featuring book store owner Arlo Stanley and her business partner Chloe Carter. As the town is preparing for the Sugar Springs All School Tenth Class Reunion, Arlo is looking forward to hosting a book signing at Books and More featuring fellow classmate Wally Harrison, now a New York Times Best Selling author. Unfortunately just a few hours before the store is set to open Arlo receives a call from Chief Matthew "Mads" Keller that there is a dead body on the sidewalk outside her shop. The body turns out to be Wally and nobody is sure if he jumped from the third story or if he was pushed.

Chloe and Wally had been high school lovers but when Chloe found herself pregnant, Wally left town and signed over all of his parental rights to their son Jayden. Chloe has never gotten over his betrayal and it's really no surprise when she is arrested for his murder. Arlo knows that there is no way her best friend committed the crime and she teams up with her guardian Helen and the ladies of the Friday Night Book Club to clear her name. With only ten days before Chloe is moved from the local jail to county prison Arlo must act fast to identify the real killer.

The book starts off a little slow but by the midpoint the plot gathers steam. An interesting cast of characters, a fun and feisty Amazon parrot named Faulkner and several suspects keep the pages turning. Not a fan of the love triangle I'm really hoping that the author doesn't keep Arlo's relationships with Mads and private eye Sam Tucker, both her ex boyfriends, at the forefront of future installments in the series.

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