Amy-Faye has always
loved her idyllic Rocky Mountain town of Heaven, Colorado. Her
event-planning business is thriving, her fellow book-obsessed
Readaholics are great, and her parents live only a few blocks away. But
lately her hometown has felt a little less heavenly. First, she agrees
to plan a wedding without realizing the groom is her ex-boyfriend. Then,
Ivy, one of her fellow Readaholics, dies suddenly under mysterious
circumstances.
The police rule Ivy’s death a suicide by poisoning, but Amy-Faye and the remaining Readaholics suspect foul play. Amy-Faye soon discovers that Ivy was hiding dangerous secrets—and making deadly enemies. Taking a page from her favorite literary sleuths, Amy-Faye is determined to find the real killer and close the book on this case. But finding the truth could spell her own ending… |
A very fun cozy mystery, this is book-club themed. The author chooses one book per story that the club discusses and then ties that a bit into the story-line. For the first of the series it's the Maltese Falcon, a book I haven't personally read yet but will eventually (maybe) get to. I like how the club actually discusses the book and follows with a film later.
The main character is a joy. She's a wedding coordinator who runs into her ex and is hired to host his wedding. Awkward but gives us humorous tension. The club members vary in age and career and personality, which only heightens the enjoyment of the bunch as their pair together to solve the crime involving one of their own. Besides knowing a murder has happened, Amy-Faye has to convince people her friend was murdered in the first place. Enter a new detective who's stubborn and heart-throbbing, she amateurishly works with the club to find the culprit.
The murder mystery has several viable suspects and isn't impossible to solve. I figured the culprit out but there were enough doubts and red herrings to make me question my choice.
The author writes well - she doesn't have the overly scrubbed, clean feeling some cozies are cursed with, humor feels natural but not overdone, and she brings characters to life in the right stereotype cut-out to match the type of book this aims to be. Throwing in the themes of book love, book clubs, small towns, cats, and wine is a win. Happy to have found a new cozy series.
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