Happy Friday everyone! The fourth in Ellie Alexander’s new series based around a bookshop in California came out on Wednesday, and I have read all four of them, so now it’s time to write about them!
Our heroine is Annie Murray, a former criminology student turned bookseller at the Secret Bookcase in the small town of Redwood Grove in California. IN the first book, The Body in the Bookstore, she’s looking to try and boost the shop’s prospects by expanding into events – but of course a body turns up and she needs to solve the crime or the shop will end up in an even worse situation than it was to start with. Investigating the murder is one of her former professors, who also tries to entice Annie back to the world of criminology which she left after her best friend was murdered – in a crime which remains unsolved. And thus we have the template for the series so far – Annie organises an event and there’s a murder, and in the background she’s trying to decide between bookselling and criminology but with the running thread of that unsolved murder of her best friend in the background.
These are really easy to read, well plotted cozy crime novels. Annie has a nice group of friends around her which make for good secondary characters, and the events mean that there’s been a variety of locations where the murders have taken place, not just in the bookshop which helps with the “How is this business still going given all the murders” issue of the small business cozy crime. I have a little less patience with the best friend murder running strand than I do with the crime of the week (so to speak) but that’s probably because it’s going so slowly and I just want it wrapped up and sorted. But given the structure of the books, I get why it’s not happening fast.
In an astonishing turn of events, the first of this series only came out in June, and we’re already up to book four – with book five coming early next year. I’m assuming Ellie Alexander had a few of these stacked up already because the first two came out on the same day and then we’ve had another one every three months so far since, so we’ll see how long that pace can keep up, especially given as she has a couple of other series too. They’ve used various comps across the four books – some of which I don’t agree with because they lean towards the comedic and I don’t really see that in these, but generally, if you like a small business cozy crime, these may well work for you.
Anyway, I read the first one and the fourth one via NetGalley, but two and three thanks to the wonders of Kindle Unlimited. And that of course means that these are only on Kobo as audiobooks.
Have a great weekend!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 
I found the main character frustrating, especially given her supposed criminology degree and ability to ‘read people well.’ Her decisions consistently contradicted her stated expertise, making her seem unrealistic and irritating, and her love life felt distracting rather than engaging. The only reasons I continued through the series were because I was in a reading funk and needed something light, and because I was genuinely intrigued by Scarlet’s side story. Additionally, the pacing of the mysteries felt unnecessarily slow.
The slowness of the resolution of the side plot is definitely annoying me – but compared to some of the other cozy crime heroines I’ve read recently she’s not too bad, but maybe I’ve just had a run of incredibly too-stupid-to-live heroines and my standards are lower!
I hear you, and I do have a few cozy mysteries in mind — but would it be alright if I asked you for a couple of recs too? Or if there’s a spot on your site or Goodreads you’d recommend I check out, happy to take a look there too. Won’t bother you after this, promise!
Always happy to recommend things – have you got a couple of series/books you do like so I can narrow down my options a bit?
Hey,
First off, sincere apologies for the delayed reply — a few things came up that I had to deal with, and I didn’t mean to leave you hanging.
Thank you again for offering to share some cozy mystery recommendations. I don’t have anything specific in mind at the moment, but I’d love to hear your suggestions — ideally something with a lead who’s not quite like Annie from the Secret Bookcase series. Her inconsistencies were a bit too frustrating for me!
To give you a very rough idea of my taste, I’ve really enjoyed series like Finlay Donovan, Ernest Cunningham, The Marlow Murder Club, and The Thursday Murder Club — just to name a few.
Would love to hear anything you think I might enjoy!