Tuesday 21 March 2023

A Midsummer Night's Scheme (Bookbinding Mystery #2) by Harper Kincaid

All the world's a stage, but it may be curtains for bookbinder Quinn Caine’s brother if she can't bring the lights down on an actor's killer, in this mystery perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle.

Just when everything is returning to the calm that Quinn Caine and her sidekicks, Ruff Barker Ginsburg and Sister Daria, are used to in their beloved town of Vienna, a Broadway star crash-lands into their peace and quiet. Former ‘player’, Chad Frivole, is Vienna’s prodigal son—the once notorious lothario has returned a Broadway star, ready to make a different kind of mark on his hometown.

Not everyone is celebrating the Tony-award-winner’s return. Chad’s a triple threat—with a cast of characters lining up to seek their revenge on him. So, when he turns up dead in his car, trapped with a sack full of snakes, Quinn can’t say she’s surprised—but promises handsome detective Aiden Harrington that she’s staying out of this local mystery.

That is, until someone starts threatening her brother’s life. It’s true, Sebastian ‘Bash’ Caine used to be a womanizer, just like Chad. And the killer doesn’t seem to care that he’s not that man anymore. Bash Caine is in the killer’s sights, and unless Quinn and her crew can find the killer in time, whoever it is will drag her brother into his final act on this mortal coil.  (Summary via Goodreads)


I fell in LOVE with To Kill a Mocking Girl, the first book in the Bookbinding Mystery series by Harper Kincaid !!  Not only was it a great cozy mystery but it had a love story that was off the charts electric !!!  That was until now with the second book in this series out !!!  The second book A Midsummer Night's Scheme again has a great mystery with a very unique and scary cause of death but the love angle in this book blows it out of the water !!

In To Kill a Mocking Girl main character Quinn Caine and Detective Aiden Harrington are doing the dance while solving a murder....and yeah it's not uncommon for a main character to fall for the detective while dealing with the murder that the main character is in the middle of.....however, Kincaid makes the reader FEEL the relationship !!   And in A Midsummer Night's Scheme the love story is a little more complex because it involves Quinn's cousin who is in the middle of becoming a nun !!  But when a certain gentlemen whose sister is the main suspect in the murder of Chad, a local who became a Broadway actor but has come home to start a theater company in his hometown shows interested in Sister Daria, things get complicated.

Sister Daris, previously known as Elizabeth, had her heart broken years ago and was completely lost until she decided to become a nun.  Now she is a few years into her work at becoming a nun and Lucas has her feeling things that she never thought she would feel again.  And Sister Daria is trying to stay as far away from him as she can but no matter what she does, there he is.  And when Quinn's brother is threatened Quinn, Sister Daria and Lucas work together to find out who the killer is.

One other unique aspect of this story is that Chad is murdered when someone put a bunch of posionous snakes in his car and jimmied the doors so they would not open.  And Quinn's brother Bash and his fiance Rachel return home to find deadly spiders and a threatening note..... you have to give it to Kincaid for coming up with crazy and strange murder techniques.  I can only imagine what will unravel in the next book in this series....because there is no way that you will not be looking forward to it because Kincaid leaves readers hanging with Sister Daria and Lucas and if they will take it to the next level or Lucas will be sent packing.  

The Bookbinding Mystery series is a great series to get lost in.  There is so much that readers will love !!  And Kincaid knows how to keep the story fresh and interesting on so many levels !!!

 

1 comment: