Sentenced to Death (A Booktown Mystery #5) by Lorna Barrett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Booktown Mystery is probably one of my favorite series, and so when I was able to get my hands on book number 5, Sentenced to Death, of course I was all over reading it!

It;s Founder's Day, a celebration that Bob Kelly had cooked up to drive more tourist traffic into town and promote the town. Of course Bob couldn't be bothered to do the leg work or give the opening speech, so Tricia's good friend, Deborah Black is doing it all. There is a plane pulling a banner behind it that is circling all around the town square, some loops are pretty low, and it has Tricia worried. Then Deborah climbs into the gazebo to give her opening speech, but she has to stop three time for the noise of the low flying plane to move out before she can go on. As she is talking Tricia notices the plane looks to be nose-diving the gazebo, and there isn't any sound, the engine is dead, and before anyone can say or do anything, the plane crashes into the gazebo. The pilot and Deborah are both gone in the blink of an eye.

As the days pass on, and Deborah's husband David sells his wife's store even before she is buried, refuses any help from his wife's family aside from leaving his young son with his wife's mother and never having a thing to do with him, then plans a funeral within days of getting his wife's body only for people to show up and realize there is no service, just a mingle time. Tricia has had enough, and she proceeds to give David a piece of her mind about his behavior, then she decides that something is wrong with this picture. She begins to investigate, and it takes her on a multi level trip through the lives of the pilot and his wife, Deborah and David, and the daycare center were little Davey broke his arm just a couple weeks prior.

Another in the series of well-written and enjoyable books by Lorna Barrett. I find myself wanting to be in a town like Stoneham, to be a part of the lives of the people around there. It just draws you in and makes you want to read and enjoy the books. looking forward to the next book in the series.

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