by Sandra Murphy

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of She Stopped for Death. We also have a link to order it from Amazon, and from an indie bookstore where a portion goes to help support KRL.

Jenny Weston and her mother, Dora, maintain the Little Libraries in Bear Falls. The town is too small for a regular library but the bigger-than-a-birdhouse replica houses contain popular books. Residents are free to come by and borrow one or leave a new one. When Dora finds snippets of poetry from the reclusive poet, Emily Sutton, she is excited to see the woman is writing again. She collects the bits and pieces, with the thought of putting them together as a tribute. One of the townspeople wanted to celebrate Sutton’s poetry and now is over the top enthused to find that Emily makes nighttime excursions into town.

The first time Dora makes contact, Emily is scared off. Dora worries that she’ll be too afraid to leave home again, but a few nights later, Emily is back and this time willing to at least speak. Zoe Zola, a little person who lives a fantasy life mixed with writing about literary figures, isn’t so thrilled. Emily has latched onto Zoe and decided that Zoe should be the one who buys and delivers her groceries among other errands. Zoe is pretty sure there’s more than meets the eye where Emily is concerned.

Emily’s stories don’t always make sense. She says her mother went away, but in reality, she died in a house fire. She also says a cousin went away, but what is the truth behind that tale? And then there’s more weirdness when she talks about her sister. Maybe living alone in a spooky house near the swamp for so long has more than affected her mind.

Then there’s the matter of a missing man. His niece shows up to see how he is—she says he was to stay with Emily—but Emily says he never arrived. Nothing makes any sense. When Zoe goes missing, no one knows what to think.

This is the second book in the Little Library Mystery series. Zoe is a likable character, most of the time, although her mind works like no one else’s which makes it hard to keep up with her thought processes sometimes. She has a fantasy world mixed with writing about Emily Dickinson. Jenny is a bit lost as yet but is finding her way after a bad breakup, and there’s the potential romance with Tony, if only he stays in town long enough to follow through on that. Dora is a woman who loves books, so what’s not to like about her? Bear Falls and the Little Libraries are definitely a vacation destination for book lovers. Zoe’s fairy garden is worth the visit alone.

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli also writes the Nut House series (three books, written as Elizabeth Lee) and the Emily Kincaid mysteries (five).

To enter to win a copy of She Stopped for Death, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “stopped,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen March 25, 2017. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

She Stopped for Death: A Little Library Mystery

You can also use this link to purchase the book on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble and a Kindle. You can find several of Sandra’s short stories at Untreed Reads including her newest, “Arthur,” included in the anthology titled, Flash and Bang, available now. Look for Denali, in the anthology Dogs and Dragons.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases using those links. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.