Cathy C. (cathyskye) - , reviewed on 6/16/2013 + 2309 more book reviews

First Line: "Lizzie Turner, you'd like a signed copy of Derek Alton's award-winning book, wouldn't you?"


Lizzie Turner makes a trip to her local bookstore, and before she knows what's hit her, she's agreed that one-hit wonder author Derek Alton will appear at the next Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society meeting. Under the guise of learning more about the book club's members, Alton proceeds to make moves on Lizzie-- which she most definitely does not appreciate. But what she really doesn't appreciate is when Alton is murdered in her own home and she's the number one suspect. Lizzie's beau (and the local police chief) Mark Dreyfus not only has to go where the circumstantial evidence is leading him, he's not thrilled about the dead man putting the moves on his girlfriend. This is one case that the Ashton Corners book club has to solve... fast!

This second book in the Ashton Corners series is a light, fun read, and sure to please cozy mystery readers. Due to the events in the first book, A Killer Read, the characters are evolving, and I'm still enjoying the information Chase shares about Lizzie's job as a literacy specialist for the local school board. Lizzie has managed to get a young teenage girl interested in reading by starting her out on Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries. As this book club group of sleuths begin investigating, I got several chuckles from young Andie applying what she's learned from Stephanie to the case they're all trying to solve. Another feature that I enjoy is at the very end: a list of recommended books by each member of the book club. Since this is a mystery readers' book club, it's easy to gather several good titles to read in those last two pages alone. If you're like me and have read many of the recommendations, it's easy to use the list to see which member's reading tastes are most like your own.

Probably due to all the crime fiction I read, I'm becoming rather adept at identifying the killers in books rather quickly. I did so in this case, but I wasn't bothered by it at all. As in most books, it's not so much who did it as why. (And I have to admit that I'm not nearly as good at guessing the Eternal Why!)

Read and Buried is light, fun, and quick to read. I know I'm not the only one looking forward to book number three!

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