Crimes and Covers: A Magical Bookshop Mystery

In Agatha-winner Flower’s whimsical fifth Magical Bookshop mystery (after 2019’s Verse and Vengeance), an obnoxious customer who won’t give her name tries to sell Violet Waverly, the owner of Charming Books in Cascade Springs, N.Y., a signed first edition of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Thoreau expert Violet, who suspects the book is stolen, turns the woman down. Two days later, just after Violet’s wedding to police chief David Rainwater, David fishes the drowned body of the customer out of a river. With their honeymoon on hold, Violet and David try to solve the mystery of the woman’s death and check out the claims of Imogene Thoreau, who says she’s a descendant of Thoreau and the book’s rightful owner. Violet, aided by a mystical essence that inhabits her bookstore, strives to interpret the spirit’s quotes from Walden that will lead her to the truth. The murder of an antiquarian bookseller raises the stakes. This is perfect reading for a winter’s night when a bit of magic mixes well with a strong dose of murder most literary. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Jan.)