



A Midsummer Night's Scheme
A Bookbinding Mystery
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, Harper Kincaid's second installment in the Bookbinding mysteries is sure to charm.
All the world's a stage, but it may be curtains for bookbinder Quinn Victoria Caine if she can't bring the lights down on an actor's killer .
Chad Hurt is Vienna, Virginia's Local Boy Made Good. Back in the day, Chad was mostly known for breaking female hearts, but now he's a big-time Broadway actor. Now, he's back in Vienna, onstage on the Town Green, to announce the glitzy new theater he's about to build in town. But after the announcement, as he gets in his car to leave, he's killed by a sackful of snakes someone's stashed in the back seat.
Chad's only mourner is his blue Burmese kitten, Cindy Clawford. She wanders into the quaint Prose & Scones bookshop and strikes up a friendship with the resident German shepherd, Ruff Barker Ginsburg. So RBG's dog-mom, bookbinder Quinn Victoria Caine, feels compelled to search for Chad's killer.
Blood and revenge are hammering in someone's head, but whose? Is the culprit one of the scores of women done wrong? Could it be Quinn's fireman brother, Bash, who was Chad's main competitor for town Lothario? When Bash becomes a target--black widow spiders tucked into his clothes--Quinn and RBG (with Cindy riding on his back) set aside their Hamlet-esque indecision and spring into action. But the only evidence is a scrap of paper bearing a vengeful Shakespeare quote. Can Quinn track down the one who seeks a pound of flesh, or will she face the sleep of death?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The return of Broadway star Chad Frivole to his hometown of Vienna, Va., drives Kincaid's lively sequel to 2020's To Kill a Mocking Girl. After bookshop employee Quinn Caine and her German shepherd, RBG (aka Ruff Barker Ginsburg), encounter Chad, with whom Quinn went to high school, in a canine bakery, Chad drives off in his sports car. To Quinn's horror, Chad loses control of the car, which accelerates and crashes into a storefront. When the EMT responders open the door of the damaged vehicle, they get a terrible surprise. Someone managed to put seven poisonous snakes into the car and fix the doors so they wouldn't open. Chad winds up dead, having been bitten more than 30 times. Quinn's boyfriend—Vienna PD's lead detective, Aiden Harrington—investigates, as does Quinn. Suspects include many of the women Chad dated back in high school and cast aside like yesterday's garbage. Kincaid provides plenty of doggie lore amid the smooth flowing plot, though the conclusion may strike some as more fitting for a soap opera. Still, cozy fans will want to see more of Quinn.