How to Book a Murder: A Starlit Bookshop Mystery

This congenial series launch from Agatha Award winner Kuhn (the Lila Maclean series) introduces sisters Lucy and Emma Starrs. Lucy took over running the Starlit Bookshop in Silvercrest, Colo., after their parents’ untimely death, and is now assisted by Emma, who despite a PhD in English has forsaken an academic career. With the bookstore on the verge of closing, Emma organizes an Edgar Allan Poe–themed mystery party to help raise money to save it. Emma’s willing to do so even though the party is in honor of wealthy Tabitha Baxter, her high school nemesis. The party takes a macabre turn when Tabitha’s husband, who’s dressed as Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin, turns up murdered. Matters go from bad to worse when the clues point to Emma as the killer, and handsome Det. Jake Hollister, who investigates, unsettles Emma just as much as he did when they were in high school. The tension rises as the sisters and their mystery writer aunt set out at their peril to solve their own whodunit. Kuhn breaks no new ground, but cozy fans will look forward to seeing more of the Starrs sisters. Agent: Lesley Sabga, Seymour Agency. (Dec.)