Book Review: Marked Down For Murder by Josie Belle

Everyone knows that the first few weeks of the new year is pretty gloomy and depressing. That is until Valentine’s Day.

But, for Maggie Gerber and her shopping group, The Good Buy Girls, the upcoming love holiday is sprinkled with romance and murder.

In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, Maggie has been receiving a single red rose with a one word note. Her shopping group chides her that the roses are her boyfriend Sam’s way of proposing, but she tries to brush it off, since she doesn’t know if she wants to get married again.

She’s been widowed for years and with a grown daughter she’s not convinced that Sam is ready for marriage, considering they’ve recently rekindled their former high school romance. The girls, however, know that the couple deeply love one another and are pushing for a marriage.

That is until Maggie’s rival, Summer, decides she wants to break up the couple. Well, her mother Blair wants the dashing detective to be her son-in-law.

After days of emotional distress, Maggie closes her second hand store to confront Summer.

When she doesn’t find Summer at her store, she goes to Summer’s house and hears a piercing scream from inside. Rushing in, she finds Summer standing over the lifeless body of her mothers fourth husband, bloody knife in hand.

While she doesn’t believe what she sees, Maggie soon finds herself setting out to prove her nemesis is innocent.

I’m not sure what happened here, but this installment really didn’t have any kick to it. The series started off good, but the main problem here was Maggie’s insecurity over her relationship with Sam.

Often I was wondering if I were reading a young adult novel about a high school romance. I couldn’t grasp the idea of an elderly woman meddling in her over forty year old daughters love life.

Part of the charm of the series has been how this group of women prepare for discount shopping, but, since I live in a state that doesn’t make a big fuss over President’s Day, the girls are planning a big shopping trip that somehow doesn’t seem to materialize.

There are some shopping tips at the end of the book and really, this was the best part.