Review: Book three in Gilbert's Booklovers B&B Mystery series finds Charlotte Reed - owner of Chapters, the book-themed bed-and-breakfast in Beaufort, North Carolina - a bit at odds when about to greet a group of book club members coming to stay ... who seem to have all their events and menus planned ahead, leaving a lot less work for her! Led by a former colleague from Charlotte's teaching days, the group is focused on kid-lit and children's classics, events for which include a tea party directly out of Alice in Wonderland. But right off, Charlotte realizes the atmosphere among the group members themselves is anything but cute and cuddly, much of the animosity focused on a particularly loud, opinionated and shady jewelry store owner who seems to delight in rubbing everyone the wrong way - and when she turns up poisoned in the lush gardens at Chapters, Charlotte has to take on the role of sleuth again if she wants to get her own happily ever after.
One thing that makes this series so original is that author Victoria Gilbert has expertly woven in a backstory that includes espionage, in the form of Charlotte's great-aunt (who left Charlotte the B&B in her will) as a spy, back in day, with Charlotte's neighbor Ellen her former handler. It lends more credence to why Charlotte and Ellen want to investigate these crimes, if not why they have a knack for it (in fact, a third character related to the spy game background - Gavin Howard - was introduced in book two). But here, I really felt like the spy stuff was pushed more to the background, letting the current mystery shine, and that - combined with particularly strong plotting that makes you really suspect everyone in the book group, at one point or another - makes this my favorite in the series so far. And as much as I enjoyed the first two, that's saying a lot. 4/5 stars
NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
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