Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: Murder Between the Pages

AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon

PUBLISHER: JustJoshin Publishing

LENGTH: 144 pages

RELEASE DATE: November 8, 2016

BLURB:

Felix Day, author of the Constantine Sphinx mysteries, and Leonard Fuller, author of the Inspector Fez mysteries, are bitter rivals and the best of enemies. Both happen to present when a notorious author of roman à clef is shot by an invisible assailant during a signing at historic Marlborough Bookstore.

Even if they weren’t both suspects, it’s the perfect opportunity to match wits and sleuthing skills.

If only the murderer was equally amused.

REVIEW:

Felix Day and Leonard Fuller can’t stand each other. Rivals in the literary world, they compete in almost everything: their books, their opinions…they can’t even cohabitate the same room without things devolving into glares and snipe fests. When a fairly scandalous author is shot and killed at the book signing for his latest publication, both Felix and Leonard both find themselves on the short list of suspects. They also find themselves trying to solve the murder, if only to show up the other man and prove themselves superior to the other. When the case heats up, both figuratively and literally, so do the sparks between Felix and Leonard; they’ll each have to be careful if they don’t want to get burned.

I…Loved this! From the description of the story, I was under the impression that this would be a contemporary mystery but it was instead a historical one. Taking place in 1948, the author takes you through a closed room mystery that was so engaging I read the book straight though in one sitting. Felix Day and Leonard Fuller are, I think, some of my new favorite characters; both men had this great push/pull relationship with each other and the UST was fairly apparent to me, even if it wasn’t to them. It was like the two men hated each other but still couldn’t help but seek the other out when in the same place; Fuller even makes a comment at one point about how he only went to certain book signings because he knew Day would be there and he wanted the chance to trade barbs with him. The back and forth between the two main characters was kind of like a really snarky version of foreplay. 😀

The chapters alternate between both men so you get a different point of view throughout the book and that was great for getting to know each character, both in how they operated and what they reacted to their ‘rival’. There really is no sex to speak of in the book save for one small scene but really, the mystery was so well done that, while I would’ve liked there to have been more, you didn’t need it and the story was excellent regardless. I just adored this; the entire process up to the end was really, really well done and the ending to the mystery of who the murderer was enjoyable. The ending to the book itself did, unfortunately, fall a little on the flat side for me, almost like the author wasn’t quite sure to end it so it was cut off a little abruptly. Aside from that, however, the book was really entertaining and I’m already looking forward to reading it again.

If you’ve enjoyed Josh Lanyon’s books in the past or are looking for a mystery that focuses on the mystery first and the romance second, this would be a good option for you.

RATING:

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