About the Book:

In this series debut perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Miranda James, Rain Wilmot must discover the killer, before the book closes on her life.

Rain Wilmot has just returned to her family’s waterfront log cabin in Lofty Pines, Wisconsin after the untimely death of her husband. The cabin is peaceful compared to Rain’s corporate job and comes with an informal library that Rain’s mother, Willow, used to run. But as Rain prepares for the re-opening of the library, all hopes for a peaceful life are shattered when she discovers the body of Thornton Hughes, a real estate buyer, on the premise.

The community of Lofty Pines starts pointing fingers at Willow, since she has been unusually absent from the library this summer. A fishy rumor surfaces when Rain learns that Willow had been spending a lot of time with Thorton. The town even thought they were having an affair.

While theories swirl about Thorton’s death, Rain takes it upon herself to solve the case to exonerate her mother. As more clues surface, Rain will have to piece together the mystery. But if she isn’t careful, she may be the next to end up dead in the water in Murder at Lakeside Library the first in Holly Danvers’ new Lakeside Library mysteries.

My Thoughts:

I requested for and received a copy of this book from NetGalley. The below review is my honest opinion.

Murder at the Lakeside Library follows Rain, the protagonist as she arrives at her family’s log cabin in Lofty Pines. Dealing with personal loss, Rain is emotionally unstable, but feels that this break will do her good. As we follow Rain while she re-discovers friendships, deals with having to run the library connected to the cabin and tries to find some peace in general, a dead body is found near the outhouse on the family’s property. From here the reader is pulled into the investigation of the murder and Rain’s attempts to find out the truth.

The story is well-written, but at times I was a little confused as to where it was going. With a lot of the focus on Rain and her reactions, we are not provided a lot of insight into the murder investigation until the very end. This is something that I did not enjoy as I wanted to understand what was happening as the story progressed.

However, I enjoyed the dynamics between Rain and her friend Julia. The characters were well developed and some were even endearing. I particularly enjoyed the twist in the story at the end and this redeemed some of the story for me. I would recommend this as a cozy mystery which is simple to read and enjoy!