How to Book a Murder

Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, in award-winning author Cynthia Kuhn's series debut, small-town bookseller and party planner Emma Starrs is out to close the book on a Poe-faced killer's crime spree.



To help save her family's floundering Colorado bookstore, Starlit Books, newly-minted Emma Starrs, Ph.D., agrees to plan a mystery-themed dinner party for her wealthy, well-connected high school classmate Tabitha Baxter. It's all going well until Tabitha's husband, Tip-hosting the party in the guise of Edgar Allen Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin-winds up murdered.

Detective Trujillo of the Silvercrest Police Department descends on Starlit Books, and soon he's got more suspects than Montresor had casks of Amontillado. Topping the list is Emma's aunt, Nora Haven-and Tabitha believes Emma had a hand in the murder as well.

Emma is sure the party's over for Starlit events, until celebrated gothic horror author Calliope Nightfall, enthralled by the ghoulish murder tale, implores the bookseller to throw a Poe-themed launch party for her latest tome. But a bloodcurdling scream draws Emma and Nora next door…where they find two more bodies. Who is turning sleepy Silvercrest into the murder capital of Colorado?

Emma tears through her shelves of mystery novels looking for ideas to exonerate Nora-and herself. But more and more, this case threatens to drive her stark raven mad. And if she can't catch the killer, her beloved aunt will land behind bars, to walk free nevermore.