The Gun Also Rises by Sherry Harris
Sarah Winston is sorting through a client's extensive collection of mystery books, hoping she might stumble across some 1930s Nancy Drews, when she opens a suitcase and finds an unpublished manuscript by Ernest Hemingway. Just a few minutes after she shows it to her client, the suitcase has been stolen, the thief has been murdered, and Sarah is shot at.
Things only get more overwhelming when the media and a group who call themselves The Literary Treasure Hunters show up, all wanting to talk to Sarah.
This one is really good. I'm not a particular fan of Hemingway, but that didn't keep me from loving the book. The mystery twists and turns as Sarah finds herself hiding out from reporters and tweed wearing treasure hunters and I read it almost straight through. Sarah is organizing the mystery books for a sale and coordinating a fund raiser to reunite a veteran with the dog he bonded with while deployed, but there are two brief scenes that almost felt like they were tacked in there to remind the reader that the book is a Garage Sale Mystery. It was the garage sale element that made me pick up the first book, but at this point I'd keep reading just to spend time with Sarah and her friends.
A Vintage Death by Mary Ellen Hughes
Music box shop owner Callie Reed is getting involved in Keepsake Cove by planning the fall decorations and an appearance by a popular author. When the owner of the local bed and breakfast is found dead, stabbed by a pair of vintage scissors from one of the local shops, she also finds herself investigating a murder.
The second book in the Keepsake Cove mystery series, this one didn't pull me in as deeply as the first one did. The mystery kept me wondering who the murderer was and it all made sense at the end. That paranormal element is still there, but it's extremely minor and doesn't add much to the plot beyond being a cute touch.
Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an ARC.
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