Read It and Weep
3.5 Stars

When renowned actor Robbie Pine drops dead during a rehearsal of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Briar Creek community theatre, librarian and amateur sleuth Lindsay Norris is determined to expose the culprit.

While entertaining overall, this is not one of the better installments in the series.

To begin with, the heavy-handed foreshadowing means that the identity of the killer and the motive are clear quite early on. Thus, all that remains is going along for the ride as Lindsay follows the clues to the inevitable conclusion.

There is, nevertheless, some promising character development for some of the secondary cast, especially Violet and her daughter, Charlene, as well as Milton and Ms. Cole. It will be interesting to see where McKinlay takes this.

On the romance front. Lindsay and Sully are still at odds over the events from the last book and it is clear that the two need to have a serious discussion. The inclusion of a love triangle is really not my cup of tea, and I hope this is resolved quickly and does not span beyond the next book. ( )

The Briar Creek Community Theater is getting ready to put on a production of A Midsummer's Night Dream directed by former Broadway actress Violet La Rue and Hollywood legend, Robbie Vine, is going to be starring as Puck. The small town is abuzz with excitement but things start going south pretty quickly. Library Director, Lindsey Norris, is on hand to help with costuming and it looks like soon she's going to be helping to do some research. Someone doesn't want the play to go on and someone in the cast is poisoned - how can the play go on? Predictable, over written, and the love triangle is beyond stupid. Okay fluff, but I'm not sure that I would read anymore in this series. ( )

Lindsay’s love life is more complicated than the plots of these cosy mysteries! ( )

Well-known actor Robbie Vine came to Briar Creek to play the role of Puck in Violet's community theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. With library director Lindsey Norris and Sully giving each other space, Robbie shows interest in Lindsey. When paramedics pronounce Robbie dead after drinking his signature coconut water, Lindsey wants to help the investigation. While she sticks mainly to online research, she does find a few things she reports to the police chief. Most seasoned cozy readers will determine "whodunnit" fairly early in the book, but it is interesting to see how the plot unravels . . . and it contains an interesting twist. I listened to the audio version read by Allyson Ryan, but I found her male voices not that great, and I did not like the voice she gave Lindsey that well. Still it's a pleasant way to spend a few hours, particularly in stressful COVID days. ( )

The theatre bug has bitten the town of Briar Creek hard when the local community theatre prepares to stage its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It doesn't hurt that the director has brought in her old friend from Broadway, Robbie Vine, a handsome and charming actor. But when a member of the cast is poisoned, library director Lindsey can't help but stick her nose into the investigation.

As the fourth in this series, there's not a ton of surprises here. The complicated relationship between Lindsey and the handsome boat captain, Sully, continues to be complicated. The mystery is there and even I managed to pick out the whodunnit less than a quarter of the way through the novel. The real draw here, as with most cozies, is our cast of small town folk. And for this librarian the spot on library work details make me so dang happy that I'll be back for more. ( )