Murder is Binding [Booktown Mystery #1]

Murder is Binding [Booktown Mystery #1]

  - Lorna Barrett

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

I have been exploring several cozy mystery series in the (increasingly futile) hope that I will find one that I would really like. After trying out 3 culinary mystery series, two of which I abandoned after the first book, I thought this one with books as the core theme would be tempting.

The first half was interesting, with the build up of small town/village environment, one that is resuscitated by tourism, by means of specialty bookstores (however unlikely it may seem). The second half grew dull due to the typical issues I have found with this genre ...
- the protagonist is unable to get information from others by herself and has to be helped out by a sister/friend who people just tell everything
- she is too generous despite strained finances (how do they manage to keep their businesses afloat?), but unlike her counterparts from other series who are sickly sweet, she is not quite likeable
- the mystery part is thin and the villain is clear by at most 50-60% into the book
- and worst of all, she goes about announcing her investigation and suspicions to everyone, in this case, a clearly antagonistic sheriff.

Further, if it was a literary mystery, why force recipes into it? Is that a trend in this genre, or the author wanted to have it all ?

Would have given a rating of 2, but added the half star because I still may read another one in the series, because I liked the setting even if I didn't particularly like the primary character.