Murder Through an Open Door by Melissa Bourbon

Item: Murder Through an Open Door
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted August 26, 2023 by karenbaron in #BookishRecipe, Mystery, Review, Series / 1 Comment

Murder Through an Open Door

by Melissa Bourbon

Series: Pippin Lane Hawthorne (Book Magic) Mysteries #3
Series Rating:

Published by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez on January 25, 2022
Setting: North Carolina
Genres: Cozy Paranormal Animal Mystery
Pages: 322
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Goodreads
BookBub
Storygraph
Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Also in this series: The Secret on Rum Runner's Lane, Murder at Sea Captain's Inn, Murder in Devil's Cove, Murder and an Irish Curse

To stop the curse that has plagued her family for centuries, Pippin Lane Hawthorne has enlisted the help of authors Tolkien, Homer, and Dickens. How? Through bibliomancy, a practice by which passages in books speak to her in cryptic code that only she can decipher. When she finds a message from her mother in an old copy of The Secret Garden, she hopes this book might hold the answers she so desperately seeks.

The book leads Pippin to a vital clue, but before she can figure out what it means, she stumbles upon a dead body. Though the authorities deem the death is from natural causes, the books found scattered around the body tell Pippin a different story—the victim was murdered. And the death is connected to her family and the curse. Now, to solve a murder in the present, Pippin must dig deeper into her family’s troubled past, even if it means staring danger in the face.

Murder Through an Open Door by Melissa Bourbon has Pippin trying to solve her family’s mystery and curse.

Will Pippin find out how the dead body is connected to her family?

Pippin Lane Hawthrone

Pippin’s great aunt Rose finds in Pippin’s mom’s old copy of The Secret Garden a torn piece of old paper. Neither Cassie nor the aunt could make heads or tails of it. Aunt Rose sends the book to Pippin without that piece of paper, so she’s nowhere closer to figuring anything out. Until a guest comes, that might have a key to figuring out the curse.

I have to say that with each new installment of this series, I like Pippin more and more. She tries to keep busy with the Inn and figure out the curse that has plagued her family for generations. I like how she gets a bit more confident within each new book on her bibliomancy powers and how, each time, it seems like they are getting closer to figuring out the curse.

The Mystery

Pippin finds her guest’s dead body in The Open Door’s rare book room surrounded by books. She can’t make heads or tails of it since it seems like one cause of death is what happened, but it doesn’t make sense to Pippin. Especially since Pippin doesn’t think it was a natural cause of death, she believes it could somehow be connected to the Lane’s.

Even more, as Pippin and her group of trusted people get further into the mystery, it is pretty clear that the treasure hunters are back. They are trying to get whatever it is that they think Pippin and her family have hidden on the island. The one thing I love about this book is that we learn more about the family’s curse and what happened.

Five Stars

Pippin Lane Hawthorne and her friends are again back to solve another mystery. The mystery involves the Lane family curse and why the dead guy was connected. I recommend this series to anyone who likes an excellent Irish mythology mixed with a mystery book. Murder Through an Open Door by Melissa Bourbon is worthy of a five-star rating. Ms. Bourbon has a fantastic story set on this amazing island.

Be sure to take a look at the recipe in the back of the book for Blueberry Strata.

Map of Devil's Cove, North Carolina — Map of Devil’s Cove, North Carolina, courtesy of Author’s Website

Pippin Lane Hawthorne (Book Magic) Mysteries

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Murder Through an Open Door by Melissa Bourbon.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Melissa Bourbon

Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling author of nineteen mystery books, including the brand new collaborative Book Magic mysteries, the Lola Cruz Mysteries, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series, and the Bread Shop Mysteries, written as Winnie Archer. She is a former middle school English teacher who gave up the classroom in order to live in her imagination full time. Melissa, a California native who has lived in Texas and Colorado, now calls the southeast home. She hikes, practices yoga, cooks, and is slowly but surely discovering all the great restaurants in the Carolinas. Since four of her five amazing kids are living their lives, scattered throughout the country, her dogs, Bean, the pug, Dobby, the chug, and Jasper, a cattle dog/lab keep her company while she writes. Melissa lives in North Carolina with her educator husband, Carlos, and their youngest son. She is beyond fortunate to be living the life of her dreams.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges: