A Death in Door County

What’s A Death in Door County About?

Morgan Carter owns and runs a bookstore in a tourist-y town in Minnesota. In her spare time, she’s a cryptozoologist—hunting for proof of creatures like Bigfoot, Lessie, chupacabra, Jersey Devils, and so on. She hasn’t found any yet—but that hasn’t stopped her from the search (something she inherited from her parents—along with enough money to pursue this).

One day, the new-ish police chief of a local town comes by the bookstore to hire her as a consultant. There’ve been a few drowning victims—animal and human—in the last few months that have unidentifiable bite marks on them. The bites haven’t been made public knowledge, but the number of bodies with them and the short amount of time has him and state wildlife authorities curious.

She jumps at the chance—but knows that if it’s not a large creature living in Lake Michigan, there’s a chance that there’s a human behind it. Finding a human cause would be a fast way to rule out a cryptid. So, while looking for indications of a creature, she does a little Jessica Fletcher-ing. One way or another, Morgan and her loyal dog, Newt, are going to find out who’s behind the deaths.

Odds and Ends Bookstore

So, I want to go visit Morgan’s bookstore tomorrow. It feels like it has a pretty extensive inventory—with a great selection of local information and history, esoteric cryptozoological material (due in large part to Morgan and her parents’ other gig), and some very strange non-book items for sale, too (like the non-magical section of Alex Verus’ Arcana Emporium)—I’m guessing they also have a decent selection of current books, on top of that

The store has two employees (which does suggest it’s smaller than the inventory could suggest, unlike, say, Nina Hill’s bookstore). They’re the perfect level of quirk, competence (possibly hyper-competence), and humanity. They’re the kind of supporting characters that will be fun to follow.

So, what did I think about A Death in Door County?

I don’t have a lot to say about this one—it was a fun little diversion, with nice characters that I want to spend more time with. The conceit should fuel a good number of books. I can’t think of a lot to say about it at the moment, I feel like I need to see one or two more books before I can really start talking about things because so much of this book was establishing the characters and the world. The setting of Lake Michigan isn’t one that I think I’ve spent a lot of (any?) time in, so I’m looking forward to more of that.

This was an entertaining, cozy-ish read—the addition of cryptozoology to the amateur detective who owns a bookstore was a fantastic touch. It’s really a great idea. Pick this one up, I think you’ll enjoy it.