Drew & Madeline from "Death by the Book" by Julianna Deering

It's Good Friday which means Sunday is Easter!  Are you as excited about it as I am?  To kick off what I hope is a lovely Spring weekend for everyone, I have a review on Julianna Deering's second Drew Fathering mystery!

Drew Farthering’s tale continues with Death by the Book! The story picks up where the first leaves off and introduces a series of murders right away. At first they seem to have nothing to do with Drew, but as time goes by, perhaps there’s more to the “hatpin” murders than can easily be deduced.

Aside from the mystery element we get to see Drew’s faith grow stronger, and Madeline remain steadfast.  There’s a flurry when her Aunt Ruth arrives insisting Madeline give up on her relationship with Drew, but as time goes by it was fun to see how she warmed up to Drew and he won her over.  I think there was more concerning Drew’s relationship with Aunt Ruth than Madeline, but isn’t that the way it is in real life, first you fall in love, all’s good, and then you have to learn how to get along with the family?!

 

I’m usually not good at figuring out who the murderer is in mystery stories, so I was feeling really good when I figured it out right before Drew did. It made the climax very suspenseful and gave me that “ah-ha! I knew it!” feeling at the end! It’s kind of the same feeling when you get a question right while watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire! A good feeling, although I suppose no one should feel good about murder, ghastly business and all that…

Whether or not you’ve read the first book, I think you’ll enjoy this mystery.  It’s a pretty fast read and full of interesting secondary characters like the bike-riding maniac old Mr. Llwellyn.  Check it out if you haven’t already!

Deciding on what to draw with the review was really hard this time.  Such a great job was done on the cover illustrations already!  I always love reading about how the covers are made, and there’s a neat post on the covers for this series on the Bethany House blog.  I think you’ll enjoy it!  http://bethanyfiction.com/2014/03/27/judging-a-book-by-its-cover-summer-2014-releases/

-Monica

I was provided a review copy courtesy of the author, thanks DeAnna!