Death Comes Silently by Carolyn Hart

Death Comes Silently: A Death on Demand Mystery by Carolyn Hart, Berkley Prime Crime (a division of The Penguin Group Publishing), $24.95 list price, hardcover.

Annie Darling, owner of mystery bookstore Death on Demand, is dealing with slow business so when she has the chance to host a book signing for a local writer, she asks Gretchen Burkholt, a fellow volunteer at a local charity resale shop, to take her scheduled shift.  During the book signing Gretchen calls Annie when she discovers information on an index card found in the pocket of a jacket belonging to the late Everett Hathaway among clothes donated by his family after his supposed accidental drowning that could mean he was murdered instead.

Annie goes to the shop to discover Gretchen has been murdered and the paper with the information is missing.  Suspicion falls on an ex-convict handyman but as Annie digs deeper into the connection between Gretchen's and Everett's deaths even more suspects emerge and it soon becomes apparent that one of them wants her out of the way.

This series is one of my favorites and this newest story lived up to my expectations. I always like reading about the relationship between Annie and her husband Max as they embark on sleuthing adventures together.  All the regular characters are likeable which makes the series fun to read.  Hart always does a good job of creating enough suspects to keep the reader guessing right up to the end and that was the case in this storyline as well. 

Fans of this series won't be disappointed and newcomers will enjoy it even if they haven't read the previous titles as there is enough background given on the various characters to explain the relationships.