a moat murderous wedding

Molly Kimball is visiting Hazelhurst House, the castle in England where her boyfriend Kieran’s parents live, because of the upcoming wedding of her best friend Daisy Watson. The wedding is Shakespeare themed and the following weeks includes a troupe of actors doing Shakespeare plays, so Molly is there not just to support her friend but to add some bookish touches to the home. As a former librarian and a member of the family who owns one of Cambridge’s oldest bookshops, Molly brings a wealth of knowledge to her bookish tasks.

But when she wakes up and finds one of the actors, Sir Nigel Peck, floating in the moat, Molly knows that the light-hearted celebrations will have to be put on hold. When she realizes that the man is dead and what must have happened overnight, Molly is stunned to think that she had heard something the previous night that could have been the murder.

Molly had helped the Cambridge police solve a few murders, so she wants to help with this one as well. Especially since the police target a friend as their primary suspect, and she’s convinced that they’re wrong. But she will have to do some deep digging to find someone with a motive to kill Sir Nigel, and she has to do it before the wedding, or Daisy’s day will be ruined.

Vows and Villainy is the fifth book in Elizabeth Penney’s Cambridge Bookshop Series. I like this series a lot for the characters and the setting of Cambridge. These books are fast-paced and clever, and this one in particular jumps right into the crime without a lot of exposition before it. But it’s a fun murder mystery with an amazing setting. This one did feel a little rushed to me, but I did still enjoy reading it.

Egalleys for Vows and Villainy were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.