Geri (geejay) - reviewed on 7/16/2009 + 85 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I've just finished Homicide in Hardcover. A cozy with a twist. A bookbinder/restorer professional how's that for a new cozy profession?

I enjoyed this one because I was page turning and was open mouthed when the killer came through the door. Never ever suspected that person!!! I can usually figure out whodunit and just read to verify that I was right.

Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon who uses her expertise with a scalpel to save the lives of her patients. Patients with life threatening ailments of cracked, brittle leather, moldy paper and dried-up glue. She's the daughter of Deadheads who joined a commune and have become wealthy in their own right.

As the story opens, Brooklyn is at a museum reception enjoying a happy reconciliation with her life-long mentor, Abraham Karastovsky who she later discovers him dying in an isolated workroom, from a gunshot wound. With his final breath Abraham presses the supposedly cursed copy of Goethe's Faust that he has been restoring into her hands and pleads with her to "Remember the devil."

Brooklyn finds herself in the mystery surrounding Abraham's murder and the curse of Faust. Derek Stone, the British security agent (think James Bond with attitude) assigned to protect the priceless copy of Faust initially believes her guilty of the murder.

A few of the suspects include Ian, her former fiancée who is in charge of the museum exhibit that contains the Faust, Minka LaBoeuf, the thieving, conniving she-witch who has hated Brooklyn since college, Enrico Baldacchio, the sleazy book restorer who is always just this side of the law and, sometimes, on the other side. Even Brooklyn's mother isn't above suspicion. As Brooklyn works to restore the Faust she also turns amateur detective to ferret out the truth of Abraham's murder, trying to stay one step ahead of the delicious Derek and well out of range of the killer who now appears intent on eliminating her.

I never thought that book-binding and restoration would be interesting. The historical facts and bits of trivia sprinkled throughout this book were so fascinating that instead of being bored I found myself wanting to know more.

The potential for a deeper romance between Brooklyn and Derek is firmly established before the end of the book but Carlisle also tosses in a delicious twist that has me eagerly anticipating the next book in what I hope will be a long-running series.

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