A Midsummer Night’s Scheme: A Book Binding Mystery

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. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misidentified the character Aiden Harrington as being the girlfriend of Quinn Cane.