Series: BIBLIOPHILE MYSTERY | Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Murder is easy-on paper.
Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is attending the world- renowned Book Fair when her ex Kyle shows up with a bombshell. He has an original copy of a scandalous text that could change history-and humiliate the beloved British monarchy.
When Kyle turns up dead, the police are convinced Brooklyn's the culprit. But with an entire convention of suspects, Brooklyn's conducting her own investigation to find out if the motive for murder was a 200-year-old secret-or something much more personal.
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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.
This review is from: If Books Could Kill: A Bibliophile Mystery (Paperback)
Kate Carlisle's second mystery novel is just as fabulous as the first! I loved it!
In If Books Could Kill, rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright goes to Edinburgh, Scotland to attend the Book Fair. A friend approaches her with an incredible find, what could be a book of heretofore undiscovered poems by Robert Burns and proof of a scandal that will forever shatter the world's view of Scotland's poetic hero. Someone wants to stop Brooklyn from authenticating the find - enough to commit murder. As the last person to see the victim alive, Brooklyn is the prime suspect. Now, in a foreign country, she must evade the police and the killer - and oh yes, the freemasons who have vowed to protect Robert Burns's name at all costs.
Janet Evanovich is one of my favorite writers, and Kate Carlisle is right up there with her. She's even given Brooklyn a delicious romantic foil in British detective Derek Stone. (Think a James Bond who wants just one woman. Sigh!)
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This review is from: If Books Could Kill: A Bibliophile Mystery (Paperback)
Brooklyn Wainwright, bookbinder, is beginning to get a complex. It seems that everywhere she goes she finds dead bodies, and Edinburgh's Book Fair is no exception. Picking up right where the first in the series (Homicide in Hardcover) left off, Brooklyn is attending the book fair, meeting up with old friends and finding new acquaintances, having a grand old time, when an old flame asks her to authenticate a book of unknown Robert Burns poems, signed by the poet and embroiling the British royal family is a salacious scandal. Before she can even get a decent look at the object, her friend is found dead, appropriately enough, on a ghost tour, and Brooklyn is the number one suspect. Could it be because one of her bookbinding tools is the murder weapon?
Carlisle is a fine writer. The dialogue is natural, the narrative voice is a hoot, and the mystery is populated with lots of devious suspects, daunting detectives and a few silly Scots.
It's not necessary to have read the first in the series, but it does make the appearance of Wainwright's nutty parents more delicious, and adds depth to her romance with British agent Derek Stone. (No graphic scenes.)
This is a fun mystery in an interesting setting with a lively narrator and protagonist.
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The idea of a bookbinder qua accidental detective is very appealing to me.
I really enjoyed the passages in which books were described and in fact anything having to do with books was written.
However, I didn't care for the style of the narrator's voice or the dialogues. It was too crisp and uncouth for me. The narrator describes herself as superficial at one point in the story and I have to admit she did seem a little superficial to me. She's a little flat and her thoughts seem detached from a profound personality, except, again when she describes books and the sights of Scotland.
If these linguistic quirks won't bother you then you might really enjoy the books in this series. The premise is great as is the general plot and the unraveling of this mystery.
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