Read and Buried by Erika Chase

Read and Buried by Erika Chase ISBN-13: 9780425251782 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: December 4, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Hosting an award-winning novelist is quite a Christmas coup for the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society. But for Lizzie, Derek Alton is nothing but trouble—from his massive ego to his smarmy moves. When he’s murdered in her living room, it seems someone decided that this womanizing writer would be better off dead than read.

After suspicion falls on Lizzie’s friend, she and her fellow book club members start unearthing a novel’s worth of nasty secrets about Derek. As they get closer to uncovering Derek’s scandalous final manuscript, someone decides to write finis to Lizzie’s sleuthing.


My Review:
Read and Buried is a cozy mystery. This novel is the second in the series. You don't need to read the previous novel to understand this one, and this novel didn't spoil the mystery in the previous book.

The characters were interesting, likable, and reacted in realistic ways. I liked that Lizzie was careful not to ruin people's reputations when she learned scandalous things related to the case. This was a clue-based mystery. I wasn't certain about whodunit before the reveal, but whodunit was certainly on my short list of suspects. I enjoyed that the author was able to keep me guessing.

There was a nice level of detail. There was more detail about her job and less about clothing and food than in A Killer Read, so it had more "normal" levels of detail. I felt the story pacing was smoother and kept my interest even better due to this. Lizzie's low level eating disorder, which I mentioned in my Killer Read review, has disappeared. She no longer showed angst over eating sweets.

There were no graphic sex scenes. There was some explicit bad language (11 uses of "God" in swearing and 7 uses of curse words). Overall, I'd recommend this well-written, interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.