Murder Is Binding

A Booktown Mystery

By: Lorna Barrett

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

The streets of Stoneham, New Hampsire, are lined with bookstores and paved with murder.

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.

©2008 Lorna Barrett (P)2010 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Move over Cabot Cove. Lorna Barrett's new cozy creation, Murder Is Binding, has it all: wonderful old books, quirky characters, a clever mystery, and a cat named Miss Marple!" (Roberta Isleib, author of Preaching to the Corpse and the Advice Column Mysteries)

"A mystery bookstore in a sleepy New England town, a cat named Miss Marple, a nasty murder and a determined heroine make Barrett's delightful debut mystery everything a cozy lover could want and more. Bravo!" (Leann Sweeney, author of the Yellow Rose Mystery Series)

who DUN IT?

I enjoy these types of books, and although this one has multiple story lines it felt encumbered at times and as if we'd never get to the actual WHO DUN IT and WHY? could have ended 6 chapters earlier, but I still enjoyed it! give it a try ..


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An easy listen

Good narration and an easy, fluffy storyline. Kept my interest easily without being overly dramatic.

Great Read!

Any additional comments?

Love the story. You really get to feel you know the characters as real people. Enjoyed every minute and was almost dissapointed for the book to end--except I wanted to know HOW it ended.

Hang in there, it's worth it!

Almost returned the book after several chapters.
Glad I have it another chance.
The moral relationship stuff that was bugging me was part of the conflict that the characters resolve.
Love the relationship between the sisters.
good job.
Surprised me.

character development

I enjoy the story line and character development. it's consistent and interesting. have read whole series twice and never tired of it.

Awesome Story

This is a great first book in a series! Right away you are ducked into the story and you won't want to come back to the real world.

Promising Start to A Series

I'm always on the look out for a good cozy series. This is a promising start.

The things I didn't like are due to my personal taste and may not present a problem for other readers.

One thing that I don't like, even in a cozy, is inept police. That is an issue for me in this book. I'm reluctant to go into detail in order to avoid "spoilers".

The story is set in a small town, and the protagonist is a bookseller. The author has made a good start on establishing what I suspect will be recurring characters that I find appealing. The emphasis is not on graphic violence or sex.

This was book 1 of the series. I intend to read at least one more book in the series, probably skipping to book 3 or 4.

I am partial to narrators who have good diction, pleasing voices and don't "overact" charaters. Cassandra Campbell is good in all these areas.

Liked the story, but...

Never has there been a more annoying character - I so wanted the sister, Angelica, to DIE!

Best book I've had in a long time!

Not only was the storyline fabulous, but the narrator made the words jump off the page. She had beautiful voice inflection, different voices for the characters that were steady for the characters throughout the entirety of the book, and on intense parts of the book her voice truly indicated the tension that was going on.

Great whodunnit.

I really enjoyed this book. Enough twists and turns to keep one guessing, but not so many as to become tedious.
Looking for more from this author.