ARC Review: Deadly Editions

 

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

In a bookstore in Edinburgh, Delaney Nichols, bookseller, is presented with a unique opportunity-an invitation to join a literary treasure hunt. The person making the offer may be a bit mysterious and even suspicious, but it's hard to resist the promise of not only a first edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but the guarantee of being gifted the organizer's entire library of highly valuable books. But when events from the past seem to be repeating themselves, Delaney has more than one mystery to solve.

I absolutely love Edinburgh, I've visited there twice now, so the location had me hooked from the start. Shelton made me want to travel back to Edinburgh right away and hit up all the bookshops and pubs. Delaney is a likable character, a smart and geninually kind book lover who makes a great team with her husband, pub owner Tom. The characters that surround them are unique and interesting, and all add to the story.

The mystery was a really fun one, especially as it was woven around the characters and ideas of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a book I love. I definitely did not see the ending coming, but it made sense looking back, which is always a plus for me.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about is that Delaney's intuition comes to her in the form of book characters and authors talking to her inside her head at important moments. I liked the integration of story and author quotes, but it just felt strange and out of place. Granted, I have not read the other books in this series, so it may be this would make more sense to me if I started from the beginning.

This was a fun, charming book with a fantastic setting, fun characters, and an enjoyable mystery. If the rest of the series is just like this entry, it's a world I would like to revisit.