When best-friends-since-childhood Arlo and Chloe decided to open a bookstore with a coffee bar, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Despite living in the small town of Sugar Springs, Mississippi, the book shop attracts a wide variety of people. And when Arlo set up the Friday Night Book Club, she had no idea that would eventually turn into a daily book club for a trio of older women who are mostly retired, smart, and ready to solve crimes.

Helen, Camille, and Fran read the book The Missing Girl for the book club. The novel was based on a local true crime, a woman who had gone missing 50 years previous, Mary Kennedy. Although her body had never been found, her husband had been known to be abusive and was convicted of her murder. But the ladies of the book club think that there is more to the story and want to open an investigation. She had been last seen leaving Lillyfield Mansion, after giving a piano lesson.

The lady of Lillyfield Mansion, Judith Whitney, had set aside some books to be donated to Arlo’s book shop, so she was headed up to the mansion to pick them up. When the book club ladies found out where she was going, they insisted on going along so they could investigate Mary Kennedy’s disappearance. But while they are there waiting for the books, a young woman working at the mansion as a maid, Haley, fell down the stairs in front of them.

The women knew Haley because her sister Courtney worked part-time at the bookstore. But when they found out that it hadn’t been the fall that had killed her—that someone had hit her with a blunt object and that was what killed her and caused her fall down the stairs—they are stunned. Who would want to kill her? She was a lovely girl, pre-med in college, young, beautiful, with her whole life in front of her? Suddenly the book club has not just one case to investigate but two.

Meanwhile, Camille starts dating a man she met on the internet. Chloe is trying to make room for her 9-year-old son to move in to her small cottage, and Arlo is trying to figure out her own love life. Ten years ago, in high school, she had ended her relationship with Mads to date Sam, who had ended their relationship to go off to college. Now Mads is the town’s police chief, and Sam is a private investigator who rents out an office on the top floor of Arlo and Chloe’s book shop. Arlo feels like there may still be sparks there, with both men, but she can’t figure out what either of them are feeling, or even what she herself is feeling or wants for her future.

As the women get closer to answers in their investigations, they also get closer to danger. There are warning signs, but the book club ladies won’t listen. They just keep pushing towards the truth, no matter the danger. But will they push the killer too far?

A Murder Between the Pages is the second book in the Main Street Book Club Mysteries series. Author Amy Lillard has created a charming small town filled with strong Southern characters and a Main Street with lots of warmth and personality. This book is a conventional cozy filled with caring characters with fun quirks.

I liked A Murder Between the Pages, but I’m afraid I didn’t love it. I loved the premise for the crime, but I wanted to see the ladies outside of the bookstore more, doing more legwork and spending less time talking in circles. But the characters are likable, and it made for enjoyable reading.

Egalleys for A Murder Between the Pages were provided by Sourcebooks, but I also bought myself the Kindle version.