3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Synopsis

Beth has been running nonstop to be the best PTA president, bookstore owner, and single parent ever, which is why her friend Marina is staging an intervention. Beth needs to take a break—and that means letting someone else organize the PTA’s upcoming eightieth-anniversary event.

But when Cookie Van Doorne, one of the event speakers, dies of suspicious causes, Beth decides to make an intervention of her own to find out what happened. When she discovers that Cookie was poisoned, the next order of business is catching a killer whose break is almost over.

Review

Poison at the PTA by Laura Alden is the fifth book in her Beth Kennedy series. This is the first book I read in the series. I have since gone back and re-read the series in order.

This book is pretty good. The plot line kept me guessing a bit, the characters are likeable. I might have even given it a higher rating if I hadn’t gone back and re-read the series in order.

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of my biggest complaints about series is when they have continuity issues. To me, continuity issues signal a breakdown in the editing process somewhere and it seems unprofessional. This series isn’t horrible at it, but there was one thing that got to me. In this particular book, the heroine’s brother is named Bill, but in the first four books of the series, his name is Tim. Having read this book first, I was very confused on who Tim was at first.

If you’re someone who doesn’t really care about continuity issues, then you’ll probably really enjoy the series. Beth, Pete and the kids are all very likeable and the mysteries are well-written.

If there’s ever a sixth book published in this series, I will try it, but it’ll be interesting to see if Bill remains Bill or if he reverts to being Tim!