A Likely Story
3 Stars

After the disaster of the previous book, this installment is a significant improvement.

Lindsay has thankfully returned to being a rational and thoughtful adult, and the mystery surrounding the death of Peter Rosen and the search for his brother, Stewart, has several intense and suspenseful moments.

While there are some encouraging developments regarding Lindsay's romantic entanglements, the love triangle is getting old. She really needs to choose between Sully and Robbie (hopefully the former rather than the latter).

Overall, an entertaining read, and I really enjoy returning to the town of Briarcreek with its wonderful sense of community and friendship. ( )

I finished this over the weekend - in one afternoon actually. It was the make-or-break book for me in this series as the last one was just ridiculous.

I'm happy to say that this story line was a vast improvement over the last one - the reader doesn't have to disregard the laws of physics to believe what's written. The author is still stubbornly hanging on to the incredibly stupid love triangle; it's heavily implied that it's all but resolved but then the author screws the readers over with the very last line of the book (which just makes the whole thing more stupid, imo).

Also truly annoying about A Likely Story beyond the first chapter (where Lindsey's friends all treat her like a child who has no expectation of privacy) is the number of times the author feels the needs to remind her readers and her characters that Lindsey is a librarian - I almost started keeping count because the number of times it was mentioned that Lindsey is a librarian was ludicrous and harping. Seriously, Batman identifies himself less often.

Ms. McKinlay will have me and my money for another book; she recently dropped one of her series, so I have all my fingers crossed that we can expect a return to her earlier excellent writing now that she is no longer spread so thin. But I'm not holding my breath. ( )

While out on a delivery run to drop off some library books to the Rosen brothers, homebound library patrons who live on one of the islands just off the coast of Briar Creek, library director Lindsey Norris discovers one of the brothers is dead, possibly murdered. Of course, Lindsey and the rest of her circle of friends in town can't help but poke their nose into the investigation, which will dredge up plenty of old secrets.

A solid entry in the series. The mystery isn't the best of the series but I'm mostly here for the characters anyway. While Lindsey's love life drama doesn't advance much here, I did love everything that happened for her best friend (and children's librarian), Beth. Plus a cozy mystery that gets library work down perfectly is the best. ( )

More believable and tightly controlled than the previous instalment. Great news about Beth, Ian & Mary ( )

Part of Library Director Lindsay Norris's job is to deliver books to the residents scattered across the Thumb Islands, off the coast of Connecticut. She does this every two weeks, the boat captained by her ex- boyfriend Sully.
Star Island is inhabited by two elderly brothers who never leave, with one brother being in a wheelchair and the other his caretaker. When Lindsay and Sully arrive and Stewart isn't waiting for them at the dock, they have no choice but to make their way to the grand old house, which isn't easy because the paranoid brothers are known to have booby trapped the whole island. Once inside the hoarder home, they find what they were afraid of, one of the brothers is dead, and the other is missing.

This wasn't so great for me. It turns out to be the sixth in a series, so the references to past experiences crop up, especially the past relationship between the main characters Lindsay and Sully.
What really didn't work for me was the character of the library employee who does the toddler story time. The whole town, including this employee, knows that Lindsay discovered a dead body that day, but Beth comes up to Lindsay and sobs because her regulars aren't coming in to listen to her read. Then they put on disguises to check out the competition. After finding a murdered man.
I liked the author's bakery series. ( )