Crafts and Life

Addie Greyborne loved working with rare books at the Boston Public Library—she even got to play detective, tracking down clues about mysterious old volumes. But she didn't expect her sleuthing skills to come in so handy in a little seaside town . . .

Addie left some painful memories behind in the big city, including the unsolved murder of her fiancé and her father's fatal car accident. After an unexpected inheritance from a great aunt, she's moved to a small New England town founded by her ancestors back in colonial times—and living in spacious Greyborne Manor, on a hilltop overlooking the harbor. Best of all, her aunt also left her countless first editions and other treasures—providing an inventory to start her own store.

But there's trouble from day one, and not just from the grumpy woman who runs the bakery next door. A car nearly runs Addie down. Someone steals a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Then, Addie's friend Serena, who owns a nearby tea shop, is arrested—for killing another local merchant. The police seem pretty sure they've got the story in hand, but Addie's not going to let them close the book on this case without a fight . .

A great start to a new (to me!) series, with a bookseller determined to right wrongs.

Addie has had upset after upset, her mother died when she was young, her fiance has been murdered and her father was killed in a car accident.  Addie then also loses her great aunt, who leaves Addie her estate, which allows Addie to stop working in Boston and allows her to open a book shop, with both new and pre-loved books being offered (and as she used to work with rare books she is also able to offer her skills with selling those to collectors on behalf of the owners).  Unfortunately on one side of her new shop is a disagreeable woman who seems determined to drive Addie away (on the other is a cafe and she soon becomes firm friends with her), then things start getting very strange as a car nearly runs her down, her house is ransacked more than once! Then the cafe owner, Serena, is arrested by her own brother for murder! Now Addie has to put the sleuthing skills she used researching rare books to find out the truth and get Serena out of pokey!