Murder on the Half Shelf

"I remember reading the first book in this series and enjoying it. It’s been a minute since then, but I don’t remember more than a couple of things in that book that made me go ‘ehhhhh no thanks.’ The biggest issue in that one was the use of the r-word, which very nearly killed the enjoyment for me, but I was determined to finish and outside of that I don’t recall many things that were nearly as obnoxious. This book (the 6th overall but only the 2nd that I’ve read) did not escape nearly as unscathed. <br/><br/>First of all, about 40% of the way through the book, the characters just became unbearably bitchy. Almost all of them, which is kind of impressive in a way. Even the MC got progressively more irritating. There was an entire section ****-shaming exotic dancers. Also, one of the characters apparently has a hidden p0*n addiction (which it turns out is not really what it is), but for that reason alone he’s labeled a suspect. The undertones indicate that he has a moral failing based on this and this alone. There’s also several instances of fat-shaming (one gem in particular: “…is there anything sadder than a lonely old fat man?”). Like, what?? Basically all of the attitudes from all of the characters (except the very icky-feeling husband of the murder victim) involving sex or body types are ones I would expect from really old, grandparent-age people, not characters in their 40’s. Also, I really wouldn’t expect to see these attitudes in a book that was written in 2012 (!). It just really turned me off of the whole rest of the book.<br/><br/>The townspeople feel immature and catty. They like to call the MC the ‘village jinx’ because she keeps finding dead bodies, and they don’t mean it in an endearing way at all. Also, following a perfectly respectable conversation with an ex, the MC is then told by the ex’s fiancé to ‘stay away from my man’ and not to return to the store. What in the middle school hell is going on here? I thought these were all adults?<br/><br/>Moving on to the plot…Meh. It was super slow through most of the middle of the book, and honestly the reader never had a chance to guess the killer. But not in the fun ‘ooo what a twist’ sort of way; just in a ‘WTH where did that come from??’ vibe. I didn’t love it. Plus, the MC just basically runs up to her suspect and goes ‘hey I think you might’ve done it’ with no regard for what could actually happen if that person has actually murdered someone. To top all of that off, MC is obsessed with dating. There’s nothing wrong with being a little boy crazy, but it didn’t fit the rest of her personality and honestly all the reminiscing about her exes, failed marriage, the frankly obnoxious current boyfriend, etc. got old and detracted from the (already struggling) story.<br/><br/>Overall, a major miss for me. I don’t think I’ll be intentionally seeking out any more of the Booktown Mysteries series, sadly. I could overlook some obnoxious character traits, or a weak plot, or even one or two instances of people just being gross humans, but I can’t ignore all of it in the same book in this magnitude. I found myself struggling to finish this one, and I don’t think it’ll ever make the short list for a reread."