The birds are singing, books are selling, and the Hokes Bluff Inn has begun to host weddings on its property. Antiquarian bookseller Jenna Quinn loves the romance in the air—until her ex-fiancé, Blake Emerson, walks in with his bride-to-be, Missy Plott. Blake continues to profess his love for Jenna if she’ll have him back, no matter the consequences. And the consequences are grave, indeed, when Missy turns up dead.
All evidence points to Blake, who was the last one to see her alive. He begs Jenna to help him clear his name. Blake’s mother, Gwendolyn, is also bent on exonerating her son. Jenna doesn’t believe Blake could have killed Missy, and she starts digging for suspects. It could have been Missy’s ex-boyfriend, who proclaims a love for her he says only death could sever. Or might it have been Missy’s bitter little sister, who was secretly besotted with Missy’s ex.
Evidence turns up that links Missy’s death to embezzlement and another murder—crimes that had falsely implicated Jenna herself less than a year ago. As Gwendolyn continues to beg Jenna to help prove her son’s innocence, Jenna wonders if Blake could truly be innocent.
Jenna has to choose whether to risk it all—her reputation, her growing relationship with her boyfriend, and maybe her life—or let a possibly innocent man go to prison.
I was drawn into this story the minute Jenna’s ex-fiancé, Blake Emerson and his new fiancé, Missy Plott, walked into Jenna’s antique bookstore, Twice Upon a Time. These two characters bring Jenna’s backstory into the present and it’s a whopper. A slow revealing of the past occurs because Jenna is reluctantly drawn into solving Missy’s murder. The tension increases because Jenna’s boyfriend, Detective Keith Logan, can’t get past Jenna trying to help Blake, the man who abandoned her when she most needed him.
Jenna’s backstory is what really drew me in to this novel. Traveling with Jenna as she began to unravel not just Missy’s murder, but her own past kept me reading. Keith Logan’s attitude regarding Jenna and her history with Blake got a little old, but I laughed when one of the other characters (finally) set him straight.
I enjoyed reading Bound by Murder. Recommended.
Other books in the Antique Bookshop Mystery series:
For Whom the Book Tolls
Murder by the Bookend
Crooked Lane Books
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 1639100962
ISBN-13: 978-1639100965
Publishing Date: Sept. 6, 2022