A book to kill for, p.16
A Book to Kill For, page 16
“Margaret, do I need to remind you that we had a great opening night? When was the last time you sold that many books in one day?” Joshua let his hands slap on the sides of his legs.
“Fine. How many do I need to order? Not too many, I hope,” Maggie replied.
“No comment about Illegal Death?” Joshua said as he pushed past her to go back to the cafe.
“It’s not like you are going to listen.” Maggie shrugged.
“That’s right. Try not to be so personable and charming to our customers, Margaret. We are in this to get people to come here, not scare them away,” Joshua said.
“Joshua, you can call me Maggie,” Maggie said before he could disappear through their adjoining door.
He stopped and looked at her, but she busied herself with her new books and gently touched the red ribbon he’d used to make them look more like a gift. She didn’t see him look her up and down, and had she known what he was thinking, she might have blushed a little. She’d never believe that he was as nervous around her as she was around him.
But before she could catch him, Poe arrived to slink around her feet and purr for her attention. Maggie gave him a good scratch behind the ears before she heard someone jiggling the emergency back door.
Maggie didn’t believe that Heath could have somehow gotten out of Sheriff Lee Smith’s custody and bravely walked to the back of the shop and turned the doorknob. When she pushed the door open, a wave of cool, misty air hit her face.
“Hello?” she called before peeking around the door to find a familiar person there.
Ruby Sinclair was balancing on one foot as she hopped on the manhole covers three times each then jiggled a couple more knobs, checked a few window ledges, and finally looked at Maggie. With a grand sweep of her arm, Ruby clomped up to Maggie and, with her head high, her chin raised, and her eyes cast down, presented her with a note.
“My father heard about it,” she replied and handed Maggie a folded piece of paper before she made her dramatic exit down the alley and around the corner.
Maggie looked at the paper. It was a lovely, dusty lavender color with tiny flowers printed around the edges. When she opened it, it simply said “Thank you for the tea” in the most elegant script Maggie had ever seen.
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Continue the Bookish Cafe series with book 2, Bloodier Than Fiction. Romance doesn’t stay on Maggie’s mind for long when she becomes the target of a murderer. Buy the ebook now or read an excerpt at the end of this ebook.
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Harper Lin is a USA TODAY bestselling cozy mystery author. When she's not reading or writing mysteries, she loves going to yoga classes, hiking, and hanging out with her family and friends.
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A Note From Harper
Thank you so much for reading A Book to Kill For. If you were entertained by the book, please recommend it to friends and family who would enjoy it too. I would also really appreciate it if you could write a book review to help spread the word.
If you like this series, you might also enjoy my other series:
• The Cape Bay Cafe Mysteries (ongoing series): When Fran moves back to her idyllic beach town to take over the family café, she also develops a knack for solving bizarre murders. Each book includes dessert recipes.
• Secret Agent Granny (ongoing series): 70-year-old Barbara is a sweet grandmother—and a badass ex-CIA agent.
• The Wonder Cats Mysteries (ongoing series): three witches and their magical cats solve paranormal murder cases in the mystical town of Wonder Falls.
• The Southern Sleuth (ongoing series): Becky Mackenzie can talk to ghosts, and they help her solve crimes. A historical series set in the Jazz Age of speakeasies and flappers in beautiful and gothic Savannah.
• The Pink Cupcake Mysteries (10 books): A new divorcée sells delicious cupcakes from a pink food truck, to the chagrin of her ex-husband. Each book includes cupcake recipes.
• The Patisserie Mysteries (9 books): An heiress to a famous French patisserie chain takes over the family business, while using her status as a Parisian socialite to solve murders in high society. Each book includes French pastry recipes.
• The Emma Wild Mysteries (4 books): a special holiday cozy series about a famous singer returning to her small Canadian town. Each book includes holiday dessert recipes.
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Harper
Excerpt from “Bloodier Than Fiction”
The new shipments of books mocked Maggie Bell. There were three cardboard boxes of the latest football-themed novels and biographies, all to celebrate the Fair Haven High School football team playing their last home game of an undefeated season. Visitors had been trickling in even though the home game wasn’t for another three weeks. Business had been booming. People were stopping in the café and finding their way into the bookstore in a steady stream for days. All of them asking her the same question. Would she be attending the game?
“I’ll probably have to work” was her usual reply before she pushed her glasses up higher, to which they’d gasp and shake their heads and frown.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” they’d gush. “Maybe your boss will let you out early to catch the second half.”
“I hope not,” she’d quietly reply, which got even more critical looks.
It was bad enough the display window was bursting with pom-poms, flags, and footballs alongside the classic sports books she’d plucked from the shelves and carefully arranged. Maggie had no idea what constituted a good sports book. It was a topic she’d avoided simply because she never watched any games. It was like every customer who came in over the past couple of days was speaking another language, and she just couldn’t gather even the slightest hint as to what they were talking about. They knew the names of players, the positions they played, the records of the other teams they already defeated, and who was coming up. Maggie knew the Fair Haven team were called the Bulldogs and their colors were red and blue. That was the extent of her knowledge on the team.
However, what she lacked in smarts when it came to the sport she made up for in the display window that featured not just football titles but How to Raise and Train Your Bulldog, Zelda Wisdom, and English Bulldogs for Dummies. The customers seemed to enjoy it. Secretly, Maggie thought it was rather clever on her part too. But she couldn’t help still miss the old days when her friend and the owner of the store was still alive.
The Bookish Café, formerly called Whitfield Book Shop, had been a dusty, antiquated bookstore that rarely had a visitor. To Maggie, it was as comfortable as a warm quilt. Now it was becoming a trendy hot spot for visitors and locals alike. Maggie missed the days of sitting at the counter, reading something by Dumas or Hugo uninterrupted with Poe, the bookshop cat, purring pleasantly next to her. Poe didn’t seem to mind the increase in traffic through the store as it usually meant an extra couple of scratches behind the ears.
After a deep breath, Maggie wrinkled her nose at the boxes and reached over to the old desk where Mr. Alexander Whitfield had spent so many days chatting with her before his death. A pair of ornate scissors, razor-sharp, lay there. Maggie grabbed them and split the seams of the boxes with hesitation, as if their contents smelled foul.
There were some interesting books inside about people whose names she recognized, like Joe Namath and Peyton Manning. They’d been in the news or something, she thought. But all the rest looked the same. Men in helmets, carrying a ball under their arms with huge, padded shoulders and thighs, running or falling or posing like jersey-clad male supermodels. Most of the books were described as the stories of courage or perseverance or courageous perseverance that resulted in a Heisman Trophy or a Super Bowl ring.
“See anything you like?” Joshua Whitfield asked with a smirk.
“I don’t get it,” Maggie replied. “All this hoopla for a game. Have you seen Tammy’s bakery? You’d think a red-and-blue fabric store threw up in there.”
Tammy McCarthy’s bakery was just down the street. It was a wonderful place that made the entire block smell of cinnamon, which was especially nice at this time of the year, when the mornings were crisp with hints of fall. Maggie was there every morning to pick up pastries to bring to the café. It was a wonderful business move that Joshua had established as soon as he took over the bookstore and built the café.
“Are you kidding?” Joshua asked, looking at Maggie as if she’d suddenly sprouted antennas. “It’s not just a game. It’s man at his most aggressive in the continual quest not only for goals but for glory.”
Maggie stared at Joshua, blinking like a deer in the headlights. Joshua walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Just imagine being in the stands of a stadium, looking down on a rectangular field, with one team on one side and their rival on the other. They face off in formation. Talking smack as the play is called. The snap! The ball is thrown down the field. Does he catch it? Is it intercepted? Does he make the yards, or is he tackled? It’s anybody’s guess. And that’s where the thrill is. The crowd shouts. The smell of hot dogs and nachos and popcorn fills the air. Hot chocolate keeps your hands toasty. The sun beats down on your face. You can’t beat it. At least not until baseball season starts.”
“Lord help us.” Maggie huffed. The truth was she could have stood there for hours with Joshua’s arm around her. He wore an intoxicating aftershave that reminded her of oranges and clove cigarettes. But she didn’t dare let him think she had such thoughts.
“Oh, come on Mags.” Joshua chuckled as he pulled his arm away and took a few steps back to watch her return to the boxes of books.
“I’ll pass. And I don’t mean with a football.” She pulled out a few more books, looked at them like they were covered in fungus, and set them down in stacks.
Joshua laughed. “Have you ever been to a game?”
“No,” she replied without looking up.
“Never? Oh no. That just won’t do. We’ve got the high school game coming up. I am making it mandatory for all my employees to attend,” Joshua said.
“Well, since that’s just me, I say no,” Maggie replied.
“Oh no. I’ve got people coming in to interview for the two jobs that opened up,” Joshua said as he headed over to the cubby he’d been working on to house the more valuable books for sale. There were a few that his father had collected that weren’t worth as much as the books he’d left to Maggie in his will but were still a good investment for a beginner collector.
“What did you say?” Maggie choked.
“I need someone to help behind the counter. Tammy’s got too much on her plate as it is. She can’t keep pitching in over here. So I put an ad in the paper and got a couple replies. They’ll be coming in throughout the day,” Joshua said. “I’d appreciate your help if they come in the bookstore. Just tell them to have a seat in the café,” Joshua said as he held a level on the shelves one last time before he started to attach the decorative glass door with the skeleton key lock on it.
“Well, the café has gotten pretty busy.” Maggie swallowed after speaking.
“Yeah, and so has the bookstore. I’ve seen you running back when the deliveries come just to run up front to ring up a sale or answer a question. So I’m also looking for a stock boy to help both of us,” Joshua said without looking up from his work.
“I really don’t need anyone to help me,” Maggie insisted while nodding her head. “You can save yourself the extra money. I’m good.”
“Too late,” Joshua replied. “They’ll be coming in throughout the day.”
“What if I don’t like any of the candidates? They should have a basic understanding of the kinds of books we have and be familiar with all the classics, plus some of the more obscure titles for our more discerning customers and…”
“You aren’t interviewing any of them. I am. I’ll decide who will be competent enough to help with stocking the shelves,” Joshua replied with a smirk.
“You didn’t even ask me if I wanted any help,” Maggie replied, and her hands automatically went to her hips.
“You would have told me you didn’t need any help.” Joshua went back to the bookshelf.
“I don’t think I like this.”
“All the more reason to do it,” Joshua teased as he turned around and stepped aside for her to see the bookshelf was just about done. “We just need to varnish the wood. I’ll have your new assistant do it. Did I tell you that you’ll get to tell them what to do too?”
“I will?” Maggie said.
“You can’t go crazy. You’re not Captain Queeg. At least I hope not,” Joshua said.
The reference to The Caine Mutiny’s captain made her burst out laughing. Quickly, she regained her composure, nervously tugging on the hem and cuffs of her sweater before turning around to get back to the football books she had been unpacking.
At first, she felt itchy and uncomfortable in her own skin as the thought of new people infiltrating her sanctuary came into focus. But what Joshua had said was true. The foot traffic had increased, and sales were better than she’d ever seen them. Although people were buying more of the drivel that was on the New York Times Best Sellers list rather than really diving in deep to the classics, at least they were reading. And that, her friend Alexander Whitfield would say, made it all worth it.
Still, she was hesitant just to accept the people Joshua decided to hire. If they were going to work in the bookstore at all, they would have to have some kinds of qualifications. Maybe a degree in literature or library sciences. They would at least have to be well read, having knowledge of the major authors throughout history and some, or very few, of the more contemporary authors. Perhaps she could quickly draw up a couple of questions and give those to Joshua to help him screen out the riffraff.
She grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and placed it next to the boxes she was emptying. As an interview question came to mind, she’d quickly scribble it down. By the time she’d finished pulling out all the books, organizing them, and finally placing them either in her display or on the shelves, she had over twenty-five questions for Joshua to ask the interviewee who would eventually be working with her. Just as she was about to present them to him, the bells over the door jingled, and a wafer-thin girl with green hair tied neatly in a bun and combat boots walked into the bookshop.
Bloodier Than Fiction is available everywhere
Harper Lin, A Book to Kill For
