Book Review: Read Herring Hunt by V.M. Burns

To the town of North Harbor, Michigan, MISU quarterback Dawson Alexander is a local hero. To Samantha Washington, owner of the Market Street Mysteries Bookstore, Dawson is more than a tenant—he’s like an adopted son. But to the police, he is their prime suspect after his ex-girlfriend is found murdered. It’s more than enough real-life drama for Sam to tackle, but her role as a mystery writer also calls. Returning to the English countryside between the wars, she finds Lady Daphne Marsh in quite the quandary. Someone has tried to murder the scandalous American divorcée Wallis Simpson, for whom Edward VIII so recently abdicated his throne. It seems finding a suspect is no small challenge when most of England has a motive . . .

While Sam’s lawyer sister Jenna rushes in to build Dawson's defense, Sam and her lively grandmother, Nana Jo, huddle up to solve the mystery and blow the whistle on the real killer. With the tenacious members of the Sleuthing Senior Book Club eager to come off the sidelines, Sam and her team just might stop a killer from completing another deadly play . . .[summary via Amazon]

Read Herring Hunt is the second book in the Mystery Bookshop series, and all our favourites are back for another murder mystery to solve. Dawson Alexander is a football player, college student and part-time worker at Market Street Mysteries Bookstore. Things are going well for Dawson, as he  becomes part of the "family" at the bookshop. However, it looks like someone has some trouble in store for Dawson when his ex-girlfriend turns up dead and the police are determined to pin the crime on Dawson. With the help of the Senior Sleuths, Sam and her family set about to find a killer and clear Dawson's name.

I was absolutely head over heels for the first book in this series, The Plot is Murder. My favourite sub-genre of cozy mysteries is books about books, and this series stands out because it takes it further with a mystery inside a mystery! That's right V.M. Burns delivers two fantastic, compelling mysteries within the same book.

This time we have the mystery involving Dawson, which I solved well before the Senior Sleuths and Sam. However, I still enjoyed watching it play out, especially as anything involving the Senior Sleuths is bound to be hilarious - and it was!! The second mystery continues on with the historical mystery series that Sam is writing and that one was a lot trickier to solve. Both plots kept me well glued to each page, and I was sad when each respective mystery was solved. Luckily for me there are two more books in this series for me to devour!

While Sam is a wonderful amateur sleuth and knows how to solve a mystery, it is her Nana Jo that has me coming back for each new book. Her Nana Jo is an absolute hoot and I wish she was related to me. Not only is she willing to dig into a new mystery, but she's a perfect marksman (and not afraid to take her gun out and prove it!) and she knows her mystery books!!

The Mystery Bookshop series is fast becoming one of my favourite series, and is well worthy of being on the top of even the pickiest reader's reading list. If you're not reading this series yet, you should be!