Title: To Helvetica and Back
Author: Paige Shelton
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Pages: 304
Book Source: Paperback
The New York Times bestselling author of the Farmers’ Market Mysteries and the Country Cooking School Mysteries introduces readers to Star City, Utah, and a little shop called the Rescued Word…
Star City is known for its slopes and its powder. But nestled in the valley of this ski resort town is a side street full of shops that specialize in the simple charms of earlier eras. One of those shops is the Rescued Word, where Chester Henry and his adult granddaughter Clare lovingly repair old typewriters and restore old books. Who ever thought their quaint store would hold the key to some modern-day trouble?
When a stranger to town demands they turn over an antique Underwood typewriter they’re repairing for a customer, Clare fears she may need to be rescued. A call to the police scares the man off, but later Clare finds his dead body in the back alley. What about a dusty old typewriter could possibly be worth killing for?
My Review:
Ugh! I really wanted to like this one more, I just could not get into the characters. And it was slow going for me, lots of drawn out description in the beginning, and instead of the mystery getting solved by Clare talking to characters and tracking down clues, about half of it was done by Clare going through the clues in her head. Often repeating the information numerous times.
I thought learning some history about typewriters could have been interesting, and Paige Shelton wrote it well, I just couldn’t get into it. And the geologist love interest, didn’t hold my interest when he was talking about rocks.
I do feel bad not being able to say lots of glowing things about the story. It was well edited, and the story did flow fine. It just wasn’t for me. I did enjoy learning a bit about rare books, perhaps if there is more of that in future books, I will continue reading the series.