Title: A Very Novel Murder

Series: The Novel Detectives 

By:  Ellie Alexander

ISBN: 9781837001170 (ISBN10: 1837001170)

ASIN: B0FCN1X28J

Website: https://elliealexander.co/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra                   

Summary:

Opening a detective agency above her beloved bookstore seems like the perfect business plan—until Annie Murray’s first case involves a suspicious death right on her doorstep.

June Munrow, an elderly resident of Annie’s home town, Redwood Grove, is convinced that young Kelly Taylor’s recent drowning wasn’t the tragic accident everyone believes it to be. Despite the police ruling, June is determined to prove there’s more to the story and hires the Novel Detectives to uncover the truth.

As Annie delves into Kelly’s life, she discovers a tangled web of secrets involving Kelly’s complicated relationships, a peculiar landlord, and her mysterious roommate. Everyone connected to Kelly seems to be hiding something, and the deeper Annie digs, the more puzzling the case becomes.

With her trademark blend of curiosity and compassion, can Annie piece together the clues and solve her first official case—before she gets into deep water herself? (Goodreads)

Review:

In this new series by Ellie Alexander, The Novel Detectives, we actually see a continuation (from A Secret Bookcase Mystery Series) of the lives of Annie Murray and Fletcher Hughes in Redwood Grove. They are in partnership and starting a detective agency while also running (and owning) the Secret Bookcase bookstore.

It appears that the new detective agency has not one, but two cases to start the business off!  

The detective agency’s first case is for Caroline, owner of Artifacts, a small boutique in the village square and girlfriend of Hal Christie – the original owner of the bookstore. 

“Hal has long believed that he’s Agatha Christie’s long-lost grandson… He believed the world’s most prolific and popular mystery writer – to this day – had intentionally retreated from the spotlight to give birth. According to his research, the timing lined up with his mother’s adoption.”

What Caroline hires the agency to find out the providence of a brooch. Caroline found it 

“in an old box of Hal’s things while we were cleaning his closet to make space for some of my clothes. When I asked him about it, he said it belonged to his mother….A few days later, when I was looking into Hal’s mother’s adoption dates and when Agatha went missing, I found this….”

Caroline positioned her screen to show a picture of Agatha – three days before she disappeared. And lo and behold – it looks like she was wearing the same ring.

So Caroline hopes to find out if the ring that Hal has is indeed the same as the one in the picture of Agatha Christie.

Second – Kelly Monroe is discovered dead in her bathtub by her roommate. While the police have classified this death as an accident or suicide – it is not a death by nefarious means. Kelly Monroe’s neighbour – June Munrow however does not believe it was an accident or suicide and hires Annie and Fletcher to prove her theory that someone murdered Kelly. 

Annie’s past criminology professor, Dr. Caldwell, is the current police detective in Redwood Grove and she is onboard with Annie further investigating Kelly’s death and has given Annie and Fletcher all the information that the police department has on Kelly’s death.

I found the path that Annie and Fletcher attacked their cases very methodical and each had their own area of expertise within the process. It was easy to follow what they were doing as they were uncovering many clues.  With respect to Kelly’s death – as the case progressed, we were introduced to many potential suspects, if it were indeed a murder and not an accident or suicide. The journey was convoluted and had a number of twists and turns (of which I of course will not spill – so you can read about it yourself). It did indeed take me almost to the end to figure out the particular’s of Kelly’s death – just the way I like my cozy mysteries! 

One thing that was a wee bit disappointing was the lack of involvement of Liam (Annie’s boyfriend) and Annie’s BFF Pri. But I suspect as the series continues – we might get more of a glimpse of them…hopefully as they became beloved characters in The Secret Bookcase Mystery series.

The cover art is an eye pleaser and includes a cat on the cover, which is always good (at least in my opinion ☺)

If you have read any previous books by Ellie Alexander and you have previously enjoyed … then you will know that A Very Novel Murder will most likely be an enjoyable read as well (at least I did). Just grab your favourite libation, pull up a chair and get reading! Once I started this book – I could not put it down! I cannot wait for the next book in the series -> A Death in the Dark.