Vows and Villainy is the 5th book in the Cambridge Bookshop Mysteries by Elizabeth Penney, featuring Molly Kimball, who runs a historic bookshop in Cambridge, England, with her mother and aunt.
Title: Vows and Villainy
Author: Elizabeth Penney
First Published: November 25, 2025
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genres: mystery
Acquired: from the publisher
*** Thank you to the publisher, Minotaur Books, for providing me with a copy of the book for review purposes. ***
It’s wedding season in Cambridge, and Molly Kimball is thrilled that it’s almost time for her best friend’s special day. With the help of her boyfriend Kieran Scott, she’s determined to be the best maid of honor for Daisy and Tim. Daisy’s heart is set upon a Shakespeare-themed wedding to be held at Hazelhurst House, Kieran’s family’s home. The Scotts are also hosting a Shakespeare troupe for the summer, and the actors have kindly agreed to be part of the festivities.
But all goes awry with the discovery of Sir Nigel Peck, a famous actor with a checkered past and present-day misdeeds, floating dead in the moat with flowers strewn around him, à la Ophelia. When Kieran’s brother Alan becomes a top suspect, Molly and company must investigate to uncover the ugly truth behind this picturesque scene . . . before more bodies pile up.
Another charming adventure in Cambridge
The Cambridge Bookshop series continues to be one of my favourite cozy mystery series and I’m always excited when a new book is released. Coming back to the series feels like returning to a familiar place and some great characters.
While still set in Cambridge, Molly spends more time away from the bookshop in this book and most of the story takes place at Hazelhurst House, Kieran’s family home. This gives Molly (and us) an opportunity to spend more time with Kieran’s family, especially his mother, Lady Asha, and brother, Alan.
With the Shakespeare acting troupe also at Hazelhurst, the book had a large cast of new characters, all with strong and interesting personalities (as to be expected from a group of actors). While I did miss spending time with series regulars, it was fun getting to know the new characters. They kept things interesting and added a lot of motives and suspects to the mystery. As expected, there were a lot of twists and misdirections and trying to figure out who was telling the truth and who was just ‘acting’ was part of the fun.
Romance is in the air
At the start of the book, not only are Daisy and Tim planning their wedding, but Molly’s Aunt Violet is also planning her wedding, to retired-MI6 agent Sir Jon, which has its own troubles, in the form of Jon’s fiesty, and disapproving, 90-something-year-old mother.
Aside from wedding bells, there are a lot of other romances brewing, including ones that were previously established, like Molly and Kieran’s and Molly’s mother’s relationship with local detective Sean Ryan. There were also new budding romances, like the one between Alan and a fellow thespian. While I found that the romance-theme was heavier in this book compared to previous ones, it doesn’t distract too much from the fact that this is still a murder mystery book.
The mystery itself was very interesting as more and more skeletons come out of the closet about the victim, plus there were so many hidden agendas, red herrings, and surprise revelations, that I had a great time trying to sort it all out.
All in all, it was another great addition to the Cambridge Bookshop mysteries. While you can read this book as a standalone, it is much more enjoyable as part of the series in order to fully appreciate the character arcs. Hopefully there are more books in store for the future.
