Murder by the Book by Amie Schaumberg Narrator: Gail Shalan
Published by Harlequin Audio on August 19, 2025
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Mystery
Length: 11 hrs
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
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Near a small college campus, a student is found strangled in an abandoned barn on the outskirts of town. She's been posed to look like a painting of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the scene taunting the police with messages that they don't understand. Detective Ian Carter is known as a straitlaced cop, but seeing the girl's body leaves him shaken and uncertain of where to turn—until a chance meeting with a charmingly awkward literature professor ends with her accidentally seeing, and solving, a clue left by the killer.
Professor Emma Reilly knows that the books she loves might hold the key to unraveling the killer's crimes now that a second murder has been discovered, with the victim posed as the Lady of Shalott this time. However, when the murderer strikes too close to home and kills a third student, one from Emma’s classes, she realizes that the safety of her insular life might be nothing more than an illusion. She must find the strength to confront a killer who is turning the stories she loves into lurid scenes of death.
Amie Schaumberg has crafted a smart, thrilling and utterly compelling mystery that will have you trying to figure out whodunit right up until the end.
Forgetting for a moment the serial killer angle, I should have loved Murder by the Book. We’ve got murders, classic literature, and classic art combined with a small college setting, but in the end I was a bit disappointed.
When a female college student is murdered and the scene is elaborately staged to resemble a famous painting, Detective Ian Carter is stumped. Thankfully he recently met Professor Emma Reilly, whose area of study might help give him some insights. Of course, after “accidentally” allowing her to see the crime scene photos, he is emphatic that he does not want her help, which accomplishes two things: 1.) pushing her to gather a group of friends to help her with her own investigation instead and 2.) cooling any romance that might have been developing between the two. Emily is the frazzled, socially awkward amateur sleuth who is rather over-confident in her ability to help. She’s irritating. At the same time, our tough on the outside with a difficult past Ian apparently finds her irresistible, so much so that he makes really poor decisions and almost loses his job.
The killer was too obvious. And while I love literary references, I felt like the ones picked were a little too obvious. I like to recognize the references, but i also like to be pointed in new directions. I did find the topic of how women were presented in the art of the time and how we interact with that interesting.
I listened to the audio and thought the narrator did a fine job with what they were given.
About Amie Schaumberg
An avid reader from a young age, Amie’s writing draws on her experiences as a literary scholar, teacher, and lifelong book nerd. From the moment she discovered Jane Eyre at the age of thirteen, words have been the driving force of her passions and pursuits. She read her way from rural Montana to the libraries of the University of Notre Dame and now teaches literature and composition at a small college in Washington. She is proudly neurodivergent. Amie can usually be found with her two dogs and two cats, working her way through an infinite To-Be-Read pile.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I’ve looked at this one before, I feel better now that I know I’m not missing anything.