Anita Davison masterfully crafts an intricate web of intrigue as the narrative unfolds. The author paints a vivid picture of wartime London, immersing readers in the sights and sounds of the era. The war provides a backdrop of tension and secrecy, which adds layers to the mystery as Hannah uncovers a coded German message and becomes suspicious of Lily-Anne's husband, who seems to harbor secrets of his own.

What truly sets "Murder in the Bookshop" apart is the dynamic relationship between Hannah and her Aunt Violet. Aunt Violet, with her irreverent charm and unconventional approach to life, is a delightful character who injects humor and warmth into the story. The banter and camaraderie between Hannah and her aunt create an endearing and relatable dynamic, drawing readers into their investigative journey.

As the investigation deepens, it becomes clear that the case is anything but textbook. Davison expertly navigates a labyrinth of clues and red herrings, keeping readers guessing until the very end. Just when you think you have the puzzle solved, the author throws another curveball, leaving you eagerly turning pages to uncover the truth.

The tension escalates when one of the chief suspects is found dead, putting Hannah in the crosshairs of a cunning murderer. The stakes are high as Hannah races against time to solve the mystery before she becomes the next victim. The suspense is skillfully maintained, and the pacing keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

Anita Davison's writing shines in her ability to transport readers to another time and place. Her attention to historical detail and the authenticity of the period setting contribute to the immersive reading experience. From the bustling streets of London to the cozy confines of the bookshop, each setting is meticulously described, making the world of the story come alive.

In "Murder in the Bookshop," Davison delivers a delightful blend of mystery, history, and camaraderie. Fans of cozy mysteries will find themselves engrossed in this tale of twists, turns, and unexpected revelations. The book's homage to the style of Agatha Christie is evident, and readers who enjoy the work of classic mystery authors will find much to love in this novel.

In conclusion, "Murder in the Bookshop" is a captivating and utterly engaging cozy mystery that will transport you to the heart of wartime London. With its compelling characters, clever plot, and evocative setting, this novel is a must-read for anyone seeking a well-crafted mystery that keeps them guessing until the final page. Anita Davison has crafted a memorable addition to the genre, and readers will eagerly await her next literary venture.

I enjoyed reading Murder in the Bookshop- Anita Davidson’s historical murder mystery ticked all the right boxes( for me) for a cosy mystery
I received a copy of this book for a free and unbiased opinion.

Hannah is trying to run her Suffragette Aunt Violet’s bookshop despite the 1915’s view that well-off women should not work, a lazy manager and constant worry of being bombed and then she finds her best friend murdered in the shop with her knife. So of course, Hannah is caught up in the solving the mystery.
Hannah makes a realistic and normal heroine, someone who rebels against society’s view on women but not in an illegal way. She sympathises with suffragettes’ cause but not their methods, she does not live with her parents, but her aunt is her chaperone, and she is determined to run that bookshop. Violet is the opposite- a fully-fledged suffragette happy to go to prison for her cause, unmarried and party till 200am in the morning despite being forty. I gave up counting the number of times Aunt Violet’s age was mentioned and how she looked younger than her forty years (my only minor criticism of the book).
There are plenty of suspects and motives including drugs, clubs, espionage, adult photos and of course love. The events unfold against the backdrop of the first world war and the descriptions of bombed out London were vividly written.
I think this is the start of a new series featuring Hannah and her Aunt Violet and I would happily read the next instalment in the book.

I really liked the vibrant, colourful cover, and I thought this looked and sounded like something that I would enjoy.

I really like cosy mysteries, especially historical ones, and this was very much in my comfort zone of reading. I really liked the protagonist, Hannah, and her Aunt Violet. I found myself warming to some of the other characters too, and I enjoyed the bookshop setting - cosy mysteries centred around bookshops and libraries always appeal to me. It was a light, entertaining read. I would probably be interested in reading more books about Hannah and her Aunt Violet.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Cover: Stylish!

Another cozy mystery, another great read! I’m really pleased, as it doesn’t happen often to find two good books in a row.

The historical setting – we’re in London, WWI is in full swing – gives it a first layer of depth. Historical books are a dime a dozen these days; talent lies in using the setting not just as a mere backdrop, but as another character, you know? Am I making any sense? No? Carry on :p

All jokes aside, my point is that London comes alive through Davison’s words. Same goes for the actual characters: Hannah reads strong and poignant (I really liked her), her voice is clear, and she’s actually intriguing enough to keep my attention tied to the pages. Archie impresses me a little less, but he’s still a cool character with a distinctive voice, too.

The story itself is engrossing. As always, a special mention goes to red herrings, as I love it when a plot is not straightforward.

Third pov – good! – and a polished grammar wrap it up. My only complaint? Say. Say is a beautiful word, it slips by unnoticed, and helps with the flow. Synonyms are not always the answer.

4 stars on GR.

‘This night will haunt us for a long time...’

Being the proprietor of a bookshop is never easy, especially when you’re a woman in a man’s world. Throw in the mayhem of war and murder, recreational drugs and speakeasies and it’s a compelling read! I hope we get to see what the future has in store for Hannah and her Aunt Violet.

A very cute, fun crime story set in London during the first World War. Hannah is working in her aunt Violet's bookshop, out if character for those times, when one morning she finds her friend stabbed in a chair, in the bookshop. Even though the police is investigating, Hannah can't stop trying to find out what happened to her friend. Secrets are starting to emerge about her close friends and apparently spies are involved too. But in all the turmoil of the war, there is a bigger secret hidden.

I really enjoyed the story. It was easy to read but still captivating. Hannah and aunt Violet are great characters, especially aunt Violet is amazing. And murder in a bookshop is always a great addition.

Murder in the Bookshop by Anita Davison

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Someone’s been read their last rites… 1915, London : Working in the dusty bookshop that her Aunt Violet mysteriously inherited, Hannah Merrill is accustomed to finding twists in every tale. But discovering her beloved best friend Lily-Anne – with a paperknife through her heart – in the middle of the bookshop, is not a plotline she saw coming. The case is anything but textbook. With the discovery of a coded German message, and Hannah’s instinct that Lily-Anne’s husband is keeping secrets, she determines to get to the bottom of it. She can’t do it alone though. To crack this case, Hannah will need the enlist the help of her outrageous, opinionated, only-occasionally-objectionable Aunt Violet. They think they’re making progress until one of their chief suspects is found dead. And Hannah realises that she is herself now in the murderer’s sights. Will the final chapter be the ending of a killer… or just a killer ending?

My Opinion

Anita Davison has written some interesting characters here. I was kept on my toes trying to work out who was supposed to be the murderer. Whilst this is not my usual read, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. Hannah takes on the role of amateur sleuth knowing that she is a suspect in the murder of her best friend - can she clear her name? I thought that this was a great introduction to a new series.

Rating: 4/5

Hannah’s aunt Violet owns a bookshop in Covent Garden in World War One, she wakes one morning to hear that London was bombed overnight she is so worried about the shop that she heads into London. She is relieved when she reaches it that it is all in tact.

Her Aunt Violet who was a suffragette, employs staff to run the shop a Mr Carstairs,the Bookshop Manager and Archie his assistant. Hannah is already less than impressed with Monty Carstairs and an unexpected discovery of an inappropriate sideline of his, makes her decide to run the shop herself. However, it is not long before her excitement turns to horror when she makes a truly awful discovery. Her best friends dead body.

This is a really fun and fast paced crime novel, I loved the setting of a bookshop in the early part of the twentieth century,but I also really liked the characters. The grit of Hannah and her Aunt Violet, who I thought was elderly then realised that she is only 40! and the contrast of these with the pompousness of Cecily, very different women in their time. As Hannah and Violet try to solve the mystery you can be assured that there is plenty of drama on the way.

If you like your cosy crime like I do, you will be delighted that this is the first in a series of Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet and if this book is anything to go by it will be very popular.

4 stars ****

Murder in the Bookshop is a mystery thriller set in the war time. It's a story of an independent woman Hannah, trying to break social norms of women being wives and baby carriers. Her aunt Violet lives with her who is essentially her role model to be the independent fierce woman. Hannah and Aunt Violet own/run a quaint little bookshop and one day she found a dead body there (Kudos to the title for explaining the first 2 chapters just like that). Hannah and Aunt Violet run around the city to find out who is killer while unearthing other secrets.
It's a really good read to have. A good thriller mystery is the one that holds you to the edge of your seat, which it certainly did. There were also healthy elements of love and deceit and even comedy by certain side characters. However the true favourite character has to be aunt Violet, with her ever ready quips and flirting anywhere, she is by far the coolest aunt I've seen.
Reasons why you should read this book:
• Historical Murder Mystery
• Cute love story running in the background
• Strong female lead who does what she wants with her even stronger female sidekick
• Teeny bit family drama to make it relatable

It's a good book worth finishing in a week with a choice of biscuits and tea and finish it in a day!

A new series and author writing a mystery set in 1915 London was too hard to resist!

Becoming addicted to historical mysteries was not hard with so many stories to read! Time of war, spies, raids and overall feeling of unrest sets the stage.

Hannah has come to London and her Aunt Violet follows and ends up owning a bookshop. How or why is a mystery. But Hannah ends up running the shop when the current manager is fired.

Unfortunately, one morning she also finds her best friend murdered in between the books!

As Hannah and Violet set off to investigate the adventure begins!

This book was a fun and exciting read, with twists that made it fun trying to find out who the villan actually was. I felt that the book was really true to its era in time, which told me that the author has done her research. I really liked the characters, especially Hannah. I look forward to reading more in this series.

SUMMARY
It’s 1915 and a year into World War 1 in the city of London. Hannah Merrill has already lost her fiancé, Gerald, in the war. She is saddened, but not overwhelmingly grief stricken by his death. Now she is living in her own house and working in her Aunt Violet’s bookshop in Covent Garden. Her mother was deeply displeased, but Hannah felt the need to escape her mother’s suffocating presence in the countryside. When she finds her best friend, Lily-Anne, dead in the bookshop, she is concerned that her mother’s overprotectiveness will go into overdrive. Between that and her anger at the loss of her friend, Hannah determines that she will find the killer.

MY THOUGHTS
Lily-Anne was a social butterfly who liked to be involved in personal drama, so the number of motives and suspects is potentially large. It’s interesting to watch as Hannah and Violet try to unwind the tangled strands of the mystery. Although it is technically the Edwardian period, there are a lot of lingering Victorian attitudes that make people reluctant to reveal personal details to the police or outsiders, leading to lies, evasions, and cover-ups of unsavory truths.

For the most part, I believe the author played fair with the reader. Not much that was required to identify the murderer was hidden. Although the inspector did hold back a few details, there are still an adequate number of clues for the arm chair sleuths. I did figure out who had done it, but not why, thanks to what I think was a cleverly placed clue. I did not land on the correct motive.

Hannah is sensible, tenacious, hard-working and clever. However, she also has a tendency towards whininess when she doesn’t get her own way, but her best friend was murdered, so she can’t be expected to be at her best. Though it’s clear she is mourning the loss of her friend, her grief doesn’t weigh her down, instead it spurs her to action.

The story has a great sense of place. Most of the time, I feel like I’m in London in 1915, from the horses and carts on the street to the manner of dress. I like it when an author talks about scents because it can help create a very life-like picture of the place and this author does - everything from disinfectant and linseed oil to tobacco and herbs.

WHAT ELSE I LIKED
The author clearly did her research. I noted very few anachronisms. The historical details largely ring true with everything from bombings by zeppelins to the indignant women giving out white feathers to men who don’t appear to be serving in the war.
Her use of historical locations, such as the Endell Street Hospital started in London by Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson, add to the sense of realism.

The bookshop sounds like my kind of place with floor to ceiling oak bookcases and a black cat.

Aunt Violet is quite a woman. A suffragette who works for the Red Cross during the time of the war. She steps willingly to Hannah’s assistance in the investigation.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is the first in the series and it definitely one I would like to continue reading in the future.

I received a free eArc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Murder in the Bookshop is a cozy mystery set in wartime London during 1915. When Hannah Merrill discovers her best friend murdered, in the bookshop owned by her aunt, she can't help but try to get to the bottom of it - especially as the police consider her a suspect! With the help of her lively Aunt Violet, Hannah investigates and makes some shocking discoveries about her deceased friend and her wider social circle.
This is a very enjoyable read and the first book in a new series by this author. I sincerely hope that intriguing Inspector Farrell and the loveable Archie Root return in the next installment.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the review copy.

London, 1915. During the relatively early days of WWI, when a draft has not been instituted yet, but the realization that isn't going to be the quick war people first believed it would be has set in as the injured and death arrive home. Hannah Merrill is not at home in the country away from the dangers of London as a proper upper class woman should be, but instead working in the bookshop her aunt mysteriously inherited. She comes in one day to find her best friend there, murdered with Hannah's letter opener. Things get even more complicated when she discovers a coded German message in some postcards of an employee she just fired. Determined to get to the bottom of this, there are plenty of suspects and she will need the help of her outrageous aunt to be able to pull this off.

A decent mystery with good characters and lots of twists. It is interesting to have a cozy set during WWI. So many series are set after the war, not during so it will be interesting to see how life in London changes as the conditions worsen and the whole country is thrown into the war effort. I also didn't realize that London was bombed during the war, at least not this early. See, I'm learning something already.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A big thank you to Rachel and the publisher, Boldwood Books for issuing me with my review copy of the book and for inviting me to take part on the blog tour. (I am reading and reviewing this voluntarily and my review is my own and not biased in any way)

Murder in the Bookshop is the first in what I hope is going to be a new series by Anita Davison. I really enjoyed this and thought the main characters were really well written. Set in London in 1915, the first World War is raging on and we learn about what it is like to be an unmarried young lady of this particular time where it is still almost unheard of. Not that this bothers Hannah one bit. She has recently taken over the management of Aunt Violet's bookshop following the discovery of the last manager, who although well connected, was actually lazy and had let things slide whilst also getting up to some unscrupulous things in the bookshop (which we learn more of later!) when she discovers the body of her best friend Lily-Anne one morning. This sets off a chain of events that has Hannah investigating just what her friend had been doing in the last few weeks of her life.

Murder in the Bookshop has everything I look for in a cosy mystery, a murder, a great setting and an excellent cast of characters that each bring something to the storyline along with a subtle touch of romance, some German spies and the Suffragette movement. I'm really looking forward to hopefully learning more about the characters involved as I can see them becoming part of the storyline as the series develops.

Hannah and Aunt Violet are quite strong willed women which I really warmed to. This is obviously during a time where women were more seen and not heard so I absolutely loved that the storyline featured them going about their business as normal and not having their lives and movements dictated to them.

A really enjoyable story that actually had me guessing!

I found this to be a quick, easy, clean and fun to read mystery-murder book. The reader is certainly kept busy guessing whodunnit; at least, I was, and trying to help Hannah and Aunt Violet bumble along to uncover the perpetrator. I like that it had pockets of humor and romance tucked into the story. Great book for a 'relaxing' read.
I give this a 4 Star rating.

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

August 2023

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.

Murder in a bookstore in London in 1915. The characters and settings are well-drawn, and the mystery includes spies and international intrigue. The interactions between heroine Hannah and her Aunt Violet are particularly well-written with lively dialogue. Watching Hannah mature from a sometimes-sulky young woman to a responsible and creative investigator is also fun. Hopefully the first of many books in the series. Thanks to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

Light, enjoyable and an easy read. I could quite happily read more if this was to become a series. Thanks to Netgalley.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and, now I’ve realised the book is part of a series, it won’t be the last. This is a great cozy mystery set in 1915 in a London dealing with WW1. I loved both Hannah and Violet as strong women living in suffragette times. There’s are some great characters and some truly appalling ones. I was a bit surprised at the ending but placed in context of patriarchal Britain in makes sense.

Such an interesting look at life and views of people at the time of World War I. I thoroughly enjoyed how the main character learned and grew throughout the book. The plot held me interested for the whole book. I never guessed who the villain was!