Cambridge Bookshop #5
In Elizabeth Penny’s fifth addition to her Cambridge Bookshop series, Vows and Villainy, the reader finds Molly Kimball, a librarian who helps her aunt in her bookshop and the local police with their murders in Cambridge, England. Molly uses deductive reasoning and her social prowess to entice others to give her clues and bits of information. She also does not try to solve everything on her own and then turn over the information to the authorities – instead, she keeps the local detectives in the know as she goes, trying her best to be helpful as well as safe. While they might not praise her for her efforts they appreciate and utilize her intel as much as possible, more so now that she has established herself as a credible amateur sleuth.
Vows and Villainy is set at Molly’s boyfriend Kieran Scott’s family home of Hazelhurst House. Wedding bells are on the horizon for Molly’s best friend Daisy. Molly is ecstatic and is helping to make sure everything goes smoothly for her big day, which is not an easy feat when the wedding is to be Shakespeare-themed, including a production by a famous Shakespeare troupe who happen to be staying at Hazelhurst House. Weddings bring out the best and worst in people, but usually not murder. However, someone decides that famous actor Nigel Peck deserves a very Shakespearean demise in the house moat. Of course, death is never something to be celebrated, but other than the shock not a great many people seemed to lament Mr. Peck’s passing. Apparently, he was not a very savory individual, with a long past of traumatizing and harassing student actors. Molly finds herself yanked into the mystery of the moat murder when Kieran’s brother, Alan, is accused of the crime, loudly, in front of everyone, including the detectives. Helping Alan out of the suspect spotlight would have been a good enough motivator for Molly to lend a hand, but Daisy and the Scott family in its entirety cannot rest easy for the wedding knowing that a killer is on the loose. For Daisy and Kieran’s peace of mind, as well as the safety of everyone she cares about, Molly has no choice but to narrow down the list of Mr. Peck’s enemies and uncover his killer.
Elizabeth Penny does a wonderful job of setting up the Cambridge setting for readers. The Cambridge Bookshop series is a wonderful escape for those looking for a little English vacation. Those who have enjoyed the previous four books in the series will welcome the newest addition and will find many twists and satisfying surprises awaiting them. For new readers, the characters and settings are all outlined and explained effectively so as not to confuse. There are at least two developments that I feel are dynamic and that readers would only fully enjoy they had read a few of the previous books, because they involve the evolution of intercharacter relationships. The more context and build-up readers have for that, the more they can enjoy it. – Carla Schantz