Dear Fellow Reader,

I was fortunate last week to go to an event at my library where a local author was reading excerpts of some of her books and talking about her process and experiences. If you can ever go to an author event, I urge you to go. First, there is something about the author reading their material that can give it a new spin on their book. They are the voice and sometimes it sounds different from what you hear in your head when you are reading. Also, there are sometimes explanations that go well beyond what you would think. Although this author did talk about how when her books are published, they are no longer hers. The stories become the story that you, the reader, see and it is sometimes different from what the writer sees. This same concept is found in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic, where she tells of a woman coming up to her and saying that the book really inspired her to leave her abusive marriage because that is what Elizabeth Gilbert did in her book. But nowhere in the book or real life did Elizabeth Gilbert have an abusive marriage. The lesson is that an author is not responsible for what people read in their book.

Today we are talking about The Fatal Folio, a new book by Elizabeth Penney. Once again, I got caught agreeing to review a book that is not the first in the series. This one happens to be the third in Elizabeth Penney’s Cambridge Bookshop Series. Fortunately, these books do not need to be read in order. Phew!

Molly Kimball is an American living in Cambridge, England, and working in her family bookstore, Thomas Marlowe – Manuscripts and Folios. She has a boyfriend, Kieran Scott, and while she isn’t sure of the future of the relationship, she is sure that she loves his family library. His family hired her to update the catalog of the library. While working in the library, she finds the original manuscript of a Gothic novel entitled The Fatal Folio. The novel has been attributed to Selwyn Scott, but it is widely felt that the name is a pseudonym. But who wrote it?

Kieran’s cousin, Oliver, is a professor who specializes in Gothic literature, and he is eager to review and publish a paper on the mystery regarding the authorship of The Fatal Folio. This would help his cause at work because he is up for a big promotion. That promotion is in jeopardy because a student, Thad, has complained about him.

Later that evening, Molly is celebrating Guy Fawkes with Kieran when they come across a body slumped in the lane. It turns out to be Thad the student and he has been stabbed and dies. Who killed Thad and is there more to this than meets the eye.?

I really enjoyed this book. It is one of the better cozies that I have read lately. There were plenty of twists and turns and enough guilt to go around. Why would someone kill Thad.? Was it Oliver?

Thanks for reading!