Book Review: I Know What You Bid Last Summer by Sherry Harris (Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries #5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters, great mystery

Cons: I bid zero on cons

The Bottom Line:

Body in the gym

A multi-pronged mystery

Great bargain for us

I Know You’ll Enjoy This Book Any Summer (or Now)

I’ve been a fan of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries since the first book in the series came out.  However, I was especially excited when the title of the fifth book was announced.  How could you resist a book with the title I Know What You Bid Last Summer?  Fortunately, it lived up to the title.

As the book opens, Sarah Winston is putting the final touches on a sports equipment swap in the school gymnasium.  It’s late at night and the rest of the volunteers have left.  She’s about ready to go home when she is attacked.  Her attacker messes up all the carefully sorted equipment and makes off with items that have been donated to a silent auction to raise money for the schools in the area.

Thanks to Sarah’s friends, the swap goes just fine the next morning.  As things are winding down, however, she discovers the body of the school superintendent.  Is this murder connected to the attack on Sarah?

Fans of the series will remember that the previous book ended with a cliffhanger.  Yes, what happened is address and addressed fairly early into the book.  And that’s all I will say so I don’t spoil anything.  If you haven’t read the series yet, you might want to pick up the earlier books before enjoying this one since some of what happens here plays off threads introduced in those earlier books.

Of course, you don’t need that background to enjoy the main mystery of this book.  It actually has quite a few threads as Sarah attacks the investigation in several different ways.  Everything comes together in the end in a very logical way after giving us several twists.  There are a couple of strong sub-plots as well, one of which provides some wonderful comic relief.  They are perfectly balanced to keep us interested without slowing down the pace of the main mystery at all.

Sarah has really grown over the course of the series, and she faces some things that force her to continue growing here.  I love watching that as well as watching her grow closer to the friends she has in the community.

And the rest of the characters?  They continue to shine.  Both old and new are strong and further help to pull us into Sarah’s world.

Really, that’s what happens when you pick up on of the books in the series.  I become engrossed in Sarah’s world and life and I just can’t put it down.  I feel like I’ve visited her corner of Massachusetts, something I am dying to do in person by the time I’ve finished the book.

Whether garage sales are your thing or not, this is a series you will certainly enjoy.  I Know What You Bid Last Summer is a fantastic addition to the series that will keep you turning pages until the end.  Now comes the long wait until we can visit Sarah again.

Get more bargains with the rest of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.