Dead to Begin With by Vivian Conroy
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Coming home can be murder.
Vicky Simmons is looking for the simple life. She’s ready to trade in London for a slower pace by opening a British Country Gift Shop in her old hometown on the coast of Maine. Little does she know a few old faces are back in Glen Cove, including unrequited teenage crush Michael Danning—having taken over the local Gazette and looking better than ever.
All is looking rosy until Vicky finds herself face-to-face with a dead body and Michael is the prime suspect. When the sheriff links the motive for murder to the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl twenty years ago, Vicky must turn amateur sleuth. She’ll stop at nothing to save Michael…and unmask the real killer!-Via Goodreads
A good start to a new series, and while it started off slow, I’m glad I stuck with it. Once the story got going, it was hard to put down and by the time I wound my way up to the exciting ending, I was hooked. The plot blended an old disappearance with a new murder, and the many plot twists kept me on my toes, there were so many suspects that were more suspicious than the actual culprit. I admit, I didn’t know who the killer was until a few pages before Vicky figured it all out, but the clues were all there. Well done!
The cute setting of Glen Cove sounds like the sort of quaint New England small town familiar to anyone who has ever watched Murder, She Wrote. In fact, I kept waiting for Jessica Fletcher to ride down the street on her bike! The colorful cast of characters added a lot of charm to the story, especially Cash. I thought his character evolved the most during the story, and that gave him more dimension than the other characters.
I have say, the one thing that brought down my enjoyment of the book was Vicky’s mom, Claire. The plot and the characters added enough drama to keep the book interesting without the unnecessary distraction of a harping mother. She just didn’t add any value to the story for me.
Overall, Dead to Begin With is a charming, entertaining and absorbing cozy mystery and a great start to a new series. I’ll definitely keep this on my list of series to watch, and I recommend it for cozy mystery fans, who will find a lot to like.
Thank you to Harper Collins/HQ Digital for an advance copy in return for my honest review
Dead to Begin With is available for Kindle at Amazon or at Barnes & Noble
| Series:Country Gift Shop Cozy #1 Rating:★★★½ 3.5 stars Publisher: Harper Collins/HQ Digital Publication Date:Jan 13, 2017 Language: English |
Formats: Kindle/ePUB ISBN:9780008239183 ASIN: B01N0TBEZO Genre: Cozy Mystery Reviewer: Tam (Mystereity Reviews) |
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