Review: The Lies That Bind by Kate Carlisle

In this third book in the Bibliophile Mysteries by Kate Carlisle, Brooklyn Wainwright has returned from the Book Fair in Edinburgh, Scotland.  She is getting ready to do a series of book binding classes at the Bay Area Book Arts Center, or BABA, and has just completed a restoration of a nineteenth century illustrated edition of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens that is going to be used in a 2 week long celebration  of the 175th anniversary of the publishing of Oliver Twist.  There is some tension between the head of BABA, Layla Fontaine and Brooklyn due to Layla advertising the restored Oliver Twist as a first edition.  Basically Layla threatens Brooklyn into keeping her mouth shut, but we know Brooklyn will find a way around that.

When Layla is murdered at BABA one night during one of Brooklyn's classes, Brooklyn is the first on scene and finds yet another dead body.  She manages to hold it together and keep the scene secured for the police.  And boy is she upset that she knows enough to do that.  Luckily Brooklyn's alibi is nice and solid since she was in the middle of teaching a class room of book enthusiasts how to make journals when the gun shot went off.  

In this book, we see an appearance of all our old favorites, such as Brooklyn's best friend Robin, Brooklyn's parents, her neighbor's Vinnie and Suzie, her arch nemisis Minka, her parent's mystic adviser Avatar Robson Benedict, best known as Guru Bob and the hunky Commander Derek Stone.  We also have some new neighbors, a gay couple who look like they will be adding much to future books.  Additionally we get some great background on the mysterious and shadowy Gabriel.

I will admit that after I finished this book, I went ahead and read the teaser chapter at the end for the next book.  And I ended up reading it right away.  This series has really tightened up and just keeps getting better and better.  I really like Brooklyn.  I know many don't like books told from a first person POV, but as long as the dialogue is good and the pace keeps moving, I have no problem with this POV.  Some of my favorite authors have used it successfully and it works for me.

This is a great book in the series and at the ending, the scene between Derek and Brooklyn was sweet, funny and brought a tear to my eye.  I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.