A FATAL BOOKING (Booklover's B&B Mysteries #3) by Victoria Gilbert will be published on June 7th 2022 by Crooked Lane Books.
Charlotte Reed is back in the third installment of the Booklover's B&B Mystery series. This time she is hosting a retreat for a book club that focuses on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. When one of the guests drops over dead at a Mad Hatter themed tea party, Charlotte finds herself playing host to a murderer. The victim was not well liked by the other members of the book club, and all of them had access to the poison that was used to kill her. Aside from being thoroughly unlikable, the victim also has a shady past and may have been using her legitimate business as a cover for criminal activities. Charlotte enlists the help of her neighbor, boyfriend, and her friends to help her find the killer before she becomes the next victim.
A FATAL BOOKING is a great addition to the Booklover's B&B series. Charlotte continues to grow as a character, and her amateurs investigation skills are improving. The continuing plotline involving Charlotte's aunt former job as a spy ties all of the books together. With each novel, we learn a little more about the enigmatic Isabella Harrington. I really enjoyed all of the facts about the poison that Gilbert included. She lists numerous other (non-lethal) things that the poison can be used for, and gives an innocent reason as to why each suspect could have had it in their possession. The only thing I really found unbelievable was that all of these people—most of whom don't get along—would continue being in a book club and going on trips together.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.