Buried in a Book, A Novel Idea Mystery #1

Lila Wilkins – protagonist; Single mother just recently fired from the Dunston Herald
Trey - Lila's Son; little bit of a trouble maker.
Bentley Burlington-Duke - boss of Novel Idea Literary Agency
Althea - Lila's Mother; psychic
Jude Hudson - represents thrillers and suspense
Zack Cohen - represents Sports Writers
FloraMeriweather - represents Children's Writers
Sean (Offr. Griffiths) - police officer; love interest of Lila
Luella Ardor - represents erotic books
Marlette - murder victim
Franklin Stafford - represents nonfiction writers
Makayla - manager of the Espresso Yourself

      I started a new series this time around. So new, it only has one book in it. The series, including the first book Buried in a Book¸ is written by Lucy Arlington.
     The book starts off with Lila getting fired by the Dunston Herald Newspaper. She's a single mother with bills to pay. She looks for a job in the want ads and finds one. She applys for an intern position at the Novel Idea Literary Agency. The job entails her to read and answer queries to find the next best author. Queries are a short description of a book.
     On her first day, she meets the agents of the agency, Franklin, Jude, Zack, Flora, and Luella. She starts reading the queries and then takes lunch. When she comes back from the sandwich shop, she sees Marlette still on the couch. She goes up to see him and realizes he's not breathing. She screams and Jude comes running out. Franklin tries CPR but to no avail. They call the police and Officer Sean Griffiths shows up. He interviews Lila and then she is allowed to go home.
     As with all murder mysteries, Lila decides to try and solve the case mainly because she sensed the cops weren't doing anything about the case. This is partly true. An arson fire has taken up the police’s time. She enlists the help of Makayla and they embark on the journey to find the killer.
     As the book progresses, Lila receives two kisses, one from Jude and the other from Sean and her son decides to move onto a co-op and bypass college. As Lila gets deeper into the mystery she comes across another body. In the end the killer is caught in typical fashion with Lila’s life in danger and people coming to her rescue, including Officer Griffiths.
     All in all, I loved this book. Maybe its the detective in me or perhaps it because the book was set in North Carolina, my home state. I don’t know. I'm excited to read the next book though, partly because I want to see where the relationship between Lila and Sean go. That’s the romantic in me. This book led me to a question, "why is it that in all the mysteries I read where the women who solve the cases aren’t cops, are dating police officers?" Something to ponder. Too bad I have to wait awhile until the second book comes out. 1.5 kudos