Lila Watkins is settling in to her new promotion as a literary agent at the Novel Idea Literary Agency, she's moving into a new house, and things are going well with her new boyfriend. What more could she want? But as she's moving, she breaks a gorgeous art-deco mirror, and her mother, who tends to be somewhat of psychic tells Lila that trouble is headed her way. Lila tries to ignore her mother's premonition, knowing that everything in her life seems to be going well so why should things change?

At work, one of Lila's duties is to help plan the upcoming Book and Author Festival, including hiring someone to take her former position as an intern at Novel Idea. Fortunately, Lila hires Vicky almost immediately, and Vicky's presence allows the team to pull together a largely successful Book and Author Festival -- with the notable exception of an editor's murder.

Lila meets Melissa, a New York editor, who seems to be her doppleganger, and they hit it off immediately. However, the pall is cast over the festival when Melissa is killed. As Lila had a bizarre and intimidating interaction with an aspiring author, she worries that she was the intended target, and that Melissa was merely an innocent bystander.

Lila can't help but begin an ad hoc investigation, driven by her guilt. Her boyfriend warns her away from the investigation, but when a fledgling author is killed, Lila wonders if the two murders are connected and if the Festival somehow was a factor. Lila's investigation sees her collecting a host of suspects (including authors) with various motives and recruiting help from her barista friend, Makayla.

A nice subplot deals with Lila's son, who deferred going to college in lieu of joining a nearby co-op community. However, Trey is suddenly becoming disillusioned with the leader of the co-op, believing that Jasper has turned his back on the co-ops ideals and beliefs. Lila launches a mini investigation is quietly find out what is really going on at the mountain, while still letting her son make his own decisions regarding his future.

This mystery unravelled quite nicely, although it was a shame that Melissa was killed as soon as she and Lila formed such a nice bond. The culprit's motive was a shade darker than I typically expect from a cosy, but not enough so to be shocking or to be a turn-off. I also enjoyed that I typically suspected the same people Lila did (with the exception of the obvious red herring character).

Lucy Arlington excels at character development, and she writes relationship's that many single parents would be jealous of. Lila's relationship with both her mother and her son are believable and realistic -- they don't always agree, but they disagree respectfully and with talk through their issues. Overall, the Novel Idea Mystery series is a bibliophile's dream come true as far as cosies go, and I can't wait for the next book in the series!

Book Summary

The national bestselling Novel Idea Mysteries return with Lila Wilkins, who has just been promoted to full-time literary agent. But great new writers aren’t the only people she’s trying to catch…

Lila Wilkins has it all: the home of her dreams in the charming town of Inspiration Valley, North Carolina; a perfect police officer boyfriend; and a new job she absolutely loves. At the Book and Author Festival, which is sponsored by the Novel Idea Literary Agency, Lila expects to discover some talented new authors, but what she finds instead is the body of an editor to whom she bears an eerie resemblance.

Trouble is, the editor’s death isn’t the only literary murder taking place. Soon a blossoming author is also killed, and Lila has a gut feeling that the two murders are linked. Now she must hunt down the dark figure who killed these women—and to her surprise, she just might find the clues hidden in a manuscript…