Homicide in Hardcover: A Bibliophile Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Kate Carlisle (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 3, 2009 | Series: BIBLIOPHILE MYSTERY (Book 1)

murder is always a bestseller...

first in the new bibliophile mystery series!

The streets of San Francisco would be lined with hardcovers if rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright had her way. And her mentor wouldn?t be lying in a pool of his own blood on the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration.

With his final breath he leaves Brooklyn a cryptic message, and gives her a priceless?and supposedly cursed?copy of Goethe?s Faust for safekeeping.

Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to the humorless?but attractive?British security officer who finds her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice?

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Reprint edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451226151
• ISBN-13: 978-0451226150
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1.1 x 6.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Visit Kate online at www.KateCarlisle.com or www.Facebook.com/KateCarlisleBooks

Bestselling author Kate Carlisle spent over twenty years working in television production as an Associate Director for game and variety shows, including The Midnight Special, Solid Gold and The Gong Show. She traveled the world as a Dating Game chaperone and performed strange acts of silliness on The Gong Show. She also studied acting and singing, toiled in vineyards, collected books, joined a commune, sold fried chicken, modeled spring fashions and worked for a cruise ship line, but it was the year she spent in law school that finally drove her to begin writing fiction. It seemed the safest way to kill off her professors. Those professors are breathing easier now that Kate spends most of her time writing near the beach in Southern California where she lives with her perfect husband.

A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Kate is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She loves to drink good wine and watch other people cook.

The Real Story

For award-winning author Kate Carlisle, the gleaming brass ring of publication eluded her grasp for the longest time. People were starting to talk. Was it simply bad luck? Bad timing? Bad writing? Bad hair? A panel of experts were convened to analyze the details of Kate's life and certain patterns began to emerge that clearly indicated...well, let's just call them Bad Choices. Yes, Kate made some wrong moves on her personal path to publication, and in the interests of full disclosure--and as a cautionary tale--the highlights are listed below.

The Early Years

Kate was born in Los Angeles, California. Need we say more? Name one famous author who was born in Los Angeles. You can't do it. Why? Because all really famous authors are born somewhere else. A rural town in upstate Michigan, a crab shack on the Eastern shore, somewhere on the prairie, in a bayou, on the frozen tundra. Anywhere but LA.

And yet, despite this almost overwhelming handicap, Kate was born with good skin and a naturally attractive telephone voice which led her parents to wonder if she might have a future in either cosmetology or telephone solicitation.

Growing up, Kate and her family moved every few years. She would tell new teachers she was a Navy brat, but the truth is, her father's mounting gambling debts often forced the family to escape in the night with whatever they could carry on their backs. Kate learned to sleep with her favorite toys clutched in her arms, which may explain why her beloved Baldhead Barbie remains in Kate's special toy collection to this day.

Kate's creativity with scissors, not to mention her uncanny ability to tell great whopping lies, alarmed her parents enough that they sent Kate off to be educated by the nuns.

When Good Things Happen to Bad Girls

Thus began Kate's long and desperate search for a creative outlet and a good haircut. Chafing under the authoritarian rule of Sister Mary Cletus at Holy Rosary Academy, Kate escaped by making up stories. One of her favorites was a tale about a wild pony who rescued a strange, lonely farm girl with a bad haircut. Given their daughter's fascination with ponies, Kate's parents thought she might grow up to be a bookie like her Uncle Jerry.

As a teenager, Kate fell in with the wrong crowd. She grew big hair and started flirting with boys, but her school spirit never waned. In fact, Kate's sophomore class at Holy Rosary won a trip to Safari World for selling the most chocolate almond bars, due mainly to Kate's strategy of selling her candy bars to sailors at the downtown bus station. When Kate would ask if they'd like to buy some candy, the sailors would invariably respond, "Is your name Candy?" Her mother held out hope that Kate might someday find her niche in Sales.

Lying For Fun and Profit

But Sales weren't on Kate's radar. Instead, a friend got her a job on a game show and Kate grabbed that opportunity with both hands. She dropped out of college, bleached her hair and went on to spend years in production working on countless films and television shows, hanging out with rock stars and partying with the beautiful people.

But Kate realized she was losing her grip on what was truly important in life. She quit show biz and gave herself a permanent wave. Forsaking her worldly goods, she joined a cult. It worked out well at first. The cult leader owned a vineyard. But within months, the grapes were picked, the wine was drunk, and Kate's hair was losing its wave. It was time to move on. But where to go? What to do? Kate decided to seek professional guidance. After relating her life story to her therapist and lamenting that she'd run out of options, the woman gave her a dirty look and called her a big fat liar. Liar? Kate shouted "Eureka!" and applied to law school.

All The Right Moves...Really

During her first year of law school, Kate again turned to writing as a way of escaping the drudgery of studying because, let's face it, she wasn't the greatest student in the world. But this time there were no stories of wild ponies or lonely little girls with bad haircuts. No, this time her stories were filled with hot, lusty men and smart, spunky women investigating murders and falling in love. There was danger and adventure and treachery...and sex!

Faster than you can say res ipsa loquitur, Kate dropped out of law school and signed up for writing classes. She joined Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America where she met lots of wonderful writers and made fabulous friends. She wrote books and attended writers' conferences and sent out query letters and entered writing contests in hopes of selling her manuscripts to the perfect publisher.

And one day, Kate walked out of the hair salon with the best haircut she'd ever received. The sun was shining, the air was clean, the planets were aligned, and suddenly her phone rang. It was "The Call." Kate became a published author that day. Her destiny was fulfilled. And her hair was perfect.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Mystery February 3, 2009

By P. Ausdenmore

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon who uses her expertise with a scalpel to save the lives of her patients - patients with life threatening ailments of cracked, brittle leather, moldy paper and dried-up glue. The daughter of quirky, offbeat members of Guru Bob's Fellowship for Spiritual Enlightenment and Higher Artistic Consciousness, this very likeable heroine is passionate about her books but pretty much oblivious to everything else, including her hair, clothes and shoes, much to the frustration of her sexy, stylish best friend, Robin.

As the story opens, Brooklyn is at a museum reception enjoying a happy reconciliation with her life-long mentor, Abraham Karastovsky but her happiness ends abruptly later that evening when she discovers her mentor in an isolated workroom, dying from a gunshot wound. With his final breath Abraham presses the supposedly cursed copy of Goethe's Faust that he has been restoring into her hands and pleads with her to "Remember the devil." Suddenly, Brooklyn finds herself neck deep in the mystery surrounding Abraham's murder and the curse of Faust. Derek Stone, the handsome, all-business British security agent (think James Bond with attitude) assigned to protect the priceless copy of Faust initially believes her guilty of the murder but there are suspects aplenty and, when Brooklyn is asked to finish the restoration that was begun by Abraham, they start coming out of the woodwork. There's Ian, her former fiancée who is in charge of the museum exhibit that contains the Faust, Minka LaBoeuf, the thieving, conniving she-witch who has hated Brooklyn since college, Enrico Baldacchio, the sleazy book restorer who is always just this side of the law and, sometimes, on the other side. Even Brooklyn's mother isn't above suspicion. As Brooklyn works to restore the Faust she also turns amateur detective to ferret out the truth of Abraham's murder, trying to stay one step ahead of the delicious Derek and well out of range of the killer who now appears intent on eliminating her.

I always assumed that book-binding and restoration would be a dull, dry subject but the historical facts and bits of trivia sprinkled throughout this book were so fascinating that instead of being bored I found myself wanting to know more. The sexual tension between Brooklyn and Derek is palpable, growing stronger with each encounter but actual sexual interaction between the two is mild and, in fact, limited to a kiss. The potential for a deeper romance between Brooklyn and Derek is firmly established before the end of the book but Carlisle also tosses in a delicious twist that has me eagerly anticipating the next book in what I hope will be a long-running series.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Booklover's Delight February 3, 2009

By Cindy Chow

Format:Mass Market Paperback

It was with trepidation that Brooklyn Wainwright attended the showing of the rare book collection at the Covington Library. The guest of honor, Abraham Karastovsky, was responsible for the collection's restoration and was also Brooklyn's friend and mentor up until 6 months ago, when she told him that she was leaving to start up her own business. However, all seemed to be forgiven, so it's heartbreaking when Brooklyn discovered Abraham dying, leaving Brooklyn with a priceless edition of Faust and last words a strange clue. Brooklyn, now responsible for completing his last assignment to restore the priceless - and reportedly cursed - volume of Goethe's Faust has to discover who murdered Abraham in order to save herself from both the killer and the British detective in charge of protecting the Library's collection. The frustratingly attractive Commander Derek Stone delights in taunting and tantalizing Brooklyn, so she believes that it's up to her to solve the mystery that may be hidden in Abraham's books. Plagued by a psychotic stalker and former rival for Brooklyn's boyfriend, Brooklyn has to dodge attempts on her life, a break-in, visits with her commune family, and Gabriel, mysterious man in black who's definitely no angel.
Fans of Janet Evanovich will enjoy this surprisingly (for a bibliophile mystery) spirited and sexy novel. While I've never been fond of mysteries that have the heroine lusting for the detective while he suspects her of being a murderer, Carlisle makes this work as Brooklyn is just as irritated with herself for her feelings. Booklovers will enjoy the minutiae of book mending and lovingly detailed descriptions of the beautiful edition of Faust, and mystery readers will revel in the plethora of quirky, hilarious characters. My one complaint is that the novel ended too quickly, leaving me wanting to know more about her five commune-raised siblings and new age Deadhead mother. Thankfully, the series looks to continue with Brooklyn leaving for Edinburgh for a new job, so here's to the hope that Brooklyn's hilarious adventures with her family continue. Pick up Homicide in Hardcover in paperback as soon as you can.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant, but it didn't hold me. April 13, 2009

By Eric Stott

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The attractive cover caught me, and I'm a booklover so a "Bibliophile Mystery" sounded nice. This is a pleasant enough book but it just didn't do much for me. First, I'd have expected more about books and that they'd be more important to the plot: theft, faked editions, something more involving. While book restoration (nicely described)is the heroine's job it wasn't really a big part of the plot to me. She really didn't do much investigation, things just happened until the murderer shows up just after our heroine has found crucial evidence. I don't think I'll be searching for more books in the series.