The Lies That Bind

It was the first night of my latest bookbinding class and I, Brooklyn Wainwright, Super Bookbinder, was like a kid on the first day of grammar school.

The Lies That Bind by Kate Carlisle

On the eve of the Twisted Festival of the Bay Area Book Arts, Brooklyn feels the excitement of having done a wonderful book restoration, Dicken’s Oliver Twist (hence the “Twisted” festival), and knowing that she has eager students waiting to learn about bookbinding.

Her enthusiasm is dampened when she learns that Layla Fontaine wants to pass of the book as a first edition and will do whatever it takes to get the patrons to empty their pockets. Brooklyn feels that her personal integrity is at stake and decides she has to have a talk with Layla but it seems that someone got to Layla first.

Brooklyn once again finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. She’s determined to keep her classes going and find out Layla’s killer, no matter how horrid Layla was to a lot of people, but what she didn’t count on was facing the handsome special agent she met on previous investigations. Could they pick up where they left off the last time?

The killer must be getting spooked because more of Brooklyn’s acquaintances are getting in harm’s way and the cast of suspicious characters keeps growing. Could Layla have been killed over one book or is there more to her death?

Brooklyn is an interesting character even if she does seem to be surrounded by characters with one quirk too many. I do like her romantic partner and just wish the “will they, or won’t they” aspect of the book would get resolved soon though because plots like that typically annoy me a bit.

This is the third installment in the Bibliophile Mystery series and I do think the mystery aspect has gotten a bit more intricate and that’s something good to see in a mystery. I was able to figure out who the killer was quite early on but resolving the why was satisfactory. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, this cozy series appeals to me mainly because of the bookbinding aspect. In this entry in particular there was a lot more talk of bookbinding and I love that as it reminded me a bit of some of the classes I’ve taken.

So I’m sure that when the next book comes out I’ll be there eager to read it. This one actually had a glossary of bookbinding terms which is super helpful for those who’ve never done any bookbinding. I’m wondering (hoping) that maybe she’ll include a simple bookbinding project in another book. I may not read books with food recipes but let’s talk paper, glue and thread and I’m onboard.

Source: Personal copy