This was Scooby-Doo if Scooby-Doo was dumb.

I understand why the plot required Addie (sorry if my spelling is off, I listened to the audiobook) be a suspect - character motivation and all that good stuff. However, when that is done at the expense of making everyone else look stupid, petty, and/or incompetent the book suffers.

The worst part is most of these issues would have been fixed had Riley and Mark focused on Kalia as the murderer. She mysteriously shows up in town at the behest of her shady collector boyfriend, finds ridiculously rare and expensive books, then disappears just as suddenly when those books go missing and when there is a murder. There is no good reason to not have her be the reason Addie is invested in the murder all while making the reader guess at whats going on.

This book was so dumb and disappointing I can't even be happy my ship has sailed. Which reminds me, why have Mark's proposal in an offhand reference instead at the end of the last book? You wasted good relationship tension that could have lead into this book. Arg! I'm so frustrated.