Not the Killing Type

A Booktown Mystery #7

by Lorna Barrett

Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery, Mystery: Cozy

July 2, 2013

ISBN-10: 0425252221

ISBN-13: 9780425252222

Available in: Hardcover

Not the Killing Type
by Lorna Barrett

New York Times bestselling author of Murder on the Half Shelf, Lorna Barrett delivers another compulsively page-turning Booktown Mystery in which amateur sleuth and bookstore owner Tricia Miles gets caught up in a local election that turns lethal...

It’s November in Stoneham, New Hampshire, and that means it’s time for the Chamber of Commerce elections. The race is already a bit heated, as the long-standing Chamber president is being challenged by a former lover—Tricia’s own sister, Angelica. Then local small business owner Stan Berry throws his hat in the ring.

Unfortunately, it’s not there for long when he’s found murdered in the Brookview Inn. The murder weapon is a brass letter opener belonging to the inn’s receptionist. Tricia knows there’s no way the receptionist is a killer. And when Angelica asks Tricia to help clear her name and win the election, she sees little choice except to start snooping.

She soon uncovers a ballot box full of lies and betrayals, and a chamber full of people who had grudges against the victim. But were they serious enough to lead to murder? And who truly had something to gain? Tricia will have to do some serious sleuthing before she pulls the lever on a killer.

INCLUDES RECIPES



Lorna Barrett's Bio

Lorna Barrett is the nom de plume of author Lorraine Bartlett.

Lorraine's other alter ego, L.L. Bartlett, writes psychological suspense and the Jeff Resnick mystery series.

She's done it all, from drilling holes for NASA to typing scripts in Hollywood, and lives a life of crime in western New York.

Her first sales were to the confession magazine market. In all, she's sold nine short stories, including one on Amazon Shorts.

The Booktown Mystery series concerns a mystery bookseller who deals in rare, out-of-print, and used books. What does "L" know about bookselling? A little. She, too, has sold used books.

Authors are split on the whether "used" bookstores are good for building their careers. From a reader's perspective, they're a great way to find new authors or find out-of-print books by their favorite authors. Sadly, authors make no money from the sales of used books—and this is a business where unless you're Stephen King, Nora Roberts, or John Grisham, you aren't going to make enough money from your writing career to cover the mortgage and groceries. So it's a catch-22.

Tricia Miles, the owner of the Haven't Got a Clue bookstore that's the heart of the Booktown Mysteries, also sells new books, thus helping current "real" authors (who are mentioned in the Booktown Mysteries) stake out some kind of living, as well as keeping "alive" the works of long-dead authors.