Critic Oline Cogdill reviews P.J. Nelson’s second Old Juniper BookBookshop Mystery, All My Bones. You can order a copy through The Poisoned Pen’s Webstore, https://bit.ly/3Nmsmpp
A VALENTINE TO READING
‘All My Bones: An Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery’ by P.J. Nelson; Minotaur; 352 pages; $28
The joys and frustrations of living in a small town, the value of friends and the challenges of rebuilding one’s life meld into a humorous and light but also poignant “All My Bones,” the second in P.J. Nelson’s Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery series.
Nelson adds a wide swath of humor and seriousness to the highly entertaining “All My Bones,” which also serves as a valentine to reading and book selling.
Madeline Brimley needed a new role after her long, fairly successful career as an actress in New York and Atlanta had pretty much its course. Acting had been all she wanted to do since majoring in theater at Florida State University— but now that’s part of her past.
She has found satisfaction both professionally and personally since she’s been running the Old Juniper Bookshop, which her late Aunt Rose left her. Bookstore business is going well, with sales on the rise, no mean feat in her hometown of Enigma, Georgia, population 1,251. She’s also reconnected with friends and has found a love interest.
Madeline has been sprucing up the Victorian that houses the bookstore, but her attempts to fix up the front yard have a different outcome. Madeline and friend Gloria Coleman find a human skull while digging, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation rules that a murder has occurred.
The body is that of Beatrice Glassie, known for being a troublemaker who’s been missing for months. It’s hard to find anyone in Enigma who liked Beatrice, let alone didn’t want to kill her. But when Gloria is arrested, Madeline and other friends start their own investigations to prove her innocence.
“All My Bones” moves at a brisk clip, helmed by the strong, intelligent Madeline.
Enigma, a terrific name for a small town populated by close friends and lifelong feuds will remind readers of Cabot Cove, the villages of “Midsomer Murders” and other small towns where many meet untimely deaths.
You may not want to live there, but you would buy a few books at Old Juniper while visiting.