Book Review: The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle by Laura DiSilverio (Book Club Mysteries #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fantastic characters in a truly puzzling mystery

Cons: None worth dwelling on

The Bottom Line:

Too many suspects

Give us wonderful puzzle

Readaholics fun

Rejoin the Readaholics for Another Wonderful Classic Inspired Mystery

Earlier this year, I was delighted to discover the Book Club Mysteries, a new series from Laura DiSilverio.  The series centers on Amy-Faye Johnson and her friends in the Readaholics, a book club devoted to mysteries.  But they seemed to find themselves pulled into real life mysteries as well.  The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle is their second case, and it’s another winner.

Amy-Faye’s brother, Derek, has been working on opening a pub featuring his own brewed beers, and the big event is almost here.  Unfortunately, things are getting rocky with his investment partner, Gordon Marsh.  The two are going at it verbally and occasionally physically.  The night of the grand opening turns into a disaster, with several things going wrong.  But it ends when the Gordon’s body is found in a dumpster behind the pub.

The Readaholics have been reading Christie’s famous Murder on the Orient Express, and Amy-Faye can’t help but wish Poirot were there to help with this case.  Because the pub was so crowded when the murder happened, it is impossible to track down where any of the suspects were when the murder happened.  Further complicating things, there is no shortage of suspects and each of them has a good motive.  Maud, the conspiracy loving member of the group, is certain that a conspiracy is in play.  All Amy-Faye knows is that, with the police focusing on Derek, she needs to find the real killer before Derek gets convicted.  Can she do it?

Before we go any further, I should mention spoilers.  No, I won’t be spoiling this book.  However, there are major spoilers for Murder on the Orient Express in this novel.  If you happen to not know the ending of the Agatha Christie book and want to go into it blind, now is the time to pick it up.  Meantime, while the mystery in the first Readaholic book isn’t spoiled, a major sub-plot is.

The mystery of who killed Gordon is very strong.  How can it not be with the variety of suspects?  Each of them seem like a viable suspect at one point or another, and I truly didn’t have a clue who had done it until Amy-Faye figured it out.  And yes, her deductions were logical with the clues having been mixed in among the red herrings perfectly.  While I didn’t feel the sub-plots were as strong in this book as the first, I did enjoy them as well.

And I still love these characters.  There are a total of five Readaholics.  Amy-Faye is clearly the main character since she is our first person narrator, but the other ladies are equally strong.  You can feel the friendships represented in the rather diverse group through the page as well, and I am really drawn to that.  There are a plethora of supporting characters who are equally strong.  Really, with this cast the size it is, I never had a hard time remembering who everyone was, and that’s saying something.

And we haven’t even gotten to the suspects yet.  Again, there are plenty of them, but again they were all strong enough characters that I never once got them confused with each other.

Knowing that Murder on the Orient Express was going to be the mystery focused on in this book, I listened to it a couple of months ago.  Do you need to read that book before you read this one?  No.  Anything you truly need to know is explained in this book, although, again, that means there are spoilers for the Christie original.

With strong characters and a strong plot, I couldn’t put this book down.  You’ll be hooked as quickly as I was trying to solve The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Giveaway!

Thanks to the publisher, I have one copy of this book to give away.  Because it is a physical book, the contest is limited to residence of the US.

Just leave me a comment with your e-mail address so I can get in touch with you if you win.  I will pick the winner next Thursday, December 10th, so please leave your comment before 12:01AM Pacific Time on 12/10.  You will have until midnight on 12/15 to get back to me, or I will choose a new winner on 12/16.