Chapter and Curse

The first in a brand new cozy series from Elizabeth Penney, introducing Molly Kimball and set in one of the oldest bookshops in Cambridge, England.
Librarian Molly Kimball and her mother, Nina, are in need of a change. The untimely death of Molly’s father and Nina’s husband has left them grieving and at loose ends, so when a letter arrives from Nina’s Aunt Violet in Cambridge, England requesting their help running the family bookshop, they jump at the chance for a change.

Thos. Marlowe—Manuscripts and Folios, is one of the oldest bookshops in Cambridge, and—unfortunately—customers can tell. Desperately in need of an update, bringing the bookshop back from the brink is the perfect project. When the women arrive, spring has come to Cambridge and the famed Cambridge Literary Festival is underway. Determined to bring much-needed revenue to the bookstore, Molly invites Aunt Violet’s college classmate and famed poet Persephone Brightwell to hold a poetry reading in the shop. But the event ends in disaster when the guest of honor is found dead—with Molly’s great-aunt’s knitting needle used as the murder weapon.

While trying to clear Violet and keep the struggling shop afloat, Molly sifts through secrets past and present, untangling a web of blackmail, deceit, and murder.