Secure Death By Coffee (Bookstore Cafe Mystery, #1) Curated By Alex Erickson Displayed In Manuscript
what can I say Im a sucker for a good cozy mystery, I felt like this book was a lot less lofty than many cozies, As in, she wasted time on Facebook and wasn't a stellar cook, She seemed somehow very imperfect, and real, That's kind of a double edged sword for me, because on the one hand I felt she was really relateable, . . on the other hand, I like it when cozy characters motivate me to cook or bake or attempt things they are passionate about and good at.
I think the thing I most have to say is that there was a huge twist I did NOT see coming, and I really loved that.
Props to Mr. Erickson for catching me totally off guard!
All in all, a solidstars,
I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, .
If I could give itand a Half Stars, I would because I think it is better than abut not quite a!
When I read the description of this book, I immediately wanted to read it.
I love coffee and a good mystery, so combining them into a murder mystery was very appealing to me, I also wanted a break from my normally dark psychopath/deranged serial killer horror novels and this lighter nongruesome novel did it for me.
My initial impression of this book was, wow, I love the way this book started, City girls Krissy and Vicki move from the City to a small town for new beginnings, Krissy to escape an ex and possibly living in her dads shadow and Vicki to escape the life her parents want her to have.
They open up a coffee shop/bookstore named after a book written by Krissys father, Immediately and ironically a death by what appears to be coffee, happens,
It really sucked me into the novel and I thought for sure I would not be able to put this book down because everything happens so fast in the beginning.
The problem I had was this book was a bit unrealistic, The main character Krissy ended up annoying me more than anything and anyone in the book because she was interfering with police business and they let her do it.
She also had very low selfesteem and I feel as if the Author, Alex Erickson made it seem like everyone who was not skinny with Blonde hair and blue eyes was jealous and envious of those who are and that is certainly not the case This is my personal opinion.
Her Selfesteem was so low and yet she got the good looking guy that did not go after the supposed good looking woman Vicki.
I just think the way that all came together was just a bit strange, I also wanted the author to dive a little deeper into the relationship Krissy had with her exboyfriend, I did not feel as though that loose end was tied up, Lastly Krissy, the main character, kept accusing her cat of being evil and plotting against her throughout the book, Poor cats always get a bad rap,
Enough with the cons, this book did have some pros, I liked Alex Ericksons writing style, Alex did not get all fancy with the verbiage and I definitely appreciate not having to look up words I have never heard of.
The character development was great as well and that is what initially caught my attention with this book, Although it was not a shocker for me who ended up being the killer, I still enjoyed meeting the new characters as we tried to solve the whodunit.
I did have some negatives to say about this book, but overall I actually did enjoy it and I plan to read the next installment, Death by Tea when it comes out in December.
Your "season" of life can really effect what you read, I previously purchased this book and I could just not get into it, However, when I picked it up this time I didn't want to put it down, I found that I enjoyed my time in Pine Hills and I will definitely be back to visit, This is my reminder to you to give a book a second chance!! I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Death by Coffee is a cozy mystery by new author Alex Erickson, Part of the attraction of a cozy mystery is the quaintness of the settinggenerally a small town, Death by Coffee got that right! Pine Hills is the small town where Krissy and Vicki open a book and coffee house after leaving the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.
Pine Hills is filled with odd and cantankerous characters who bring some color to the book,
The plot of Death by Coffee is straightforward, as are most cozy mysteries, There is a bit of an interesting twist at the end of the story, The pace of the story is steady although it does at times get bogged down in unnecessary details about pets,
The characters are rather flat, and hopefully the author will address this as the series continues, Most of what the readers learns about the character is a physical description, The dialogue from the male characters is limited, The brusqueness of young Krissys approach in questioning town folk after having just arrived in town is unbelievable, I had a hard time buying that anyone would speak to her given her approach,
Despite its short comings, Death by Coffee was entertaining enough to keep me reading, I would not highly recommend this book, but I also would ward people off reading it, I received an ARC through NetGalley,
I love coffee and I love books, so of course I had to give Death by Coffee a read! Sadly, I didn't love it.
There wasn't nearly enough coffee or books, and Krissy was a really bad amateur sleuth and a bad barista and bookseller, to be honest.
She's new in town, running a bookstore/cafe with her BFF, when one of their first customers turns up dead soon after ordering one of their coffees.
Brendon Lawyer wasn't well liked, but the police have deemed it an accident, An accident where peanut dust somehow got into his coffee he's highly allergic, and his EpiPen was mysteriously missing, Krissy doesn't want anyone to think his coffee had anything to do with his death, so she decides to investigate,
Death by Coffee started off pretty good, Krissy is trying to start her new life away from her cheating ex and her parents, But having someone die right after serving them coffee is really dulling her mood, I also really like her cat, Misfit, He's such a little jerk! But things quickly go downhill once Krissy starts investigating the murder, even after the police tell her it was an accident and that she's not a suspect or even being held accountable.
Of course, that means she believes she's a suspect and has to clear her name, Not very smart.
Krissy is just downright nosy! She doesn't use any special skills and her hobbies don't help her accidentally stumble upon clues.
She straight up goes to people and starts asking them questions, Even when they tell her that she better leave, and if she comes back they'll call the cops, she comes back! She pushes her way into people's homes and gets arrested! Then proceeds to stalk them on Facebook, show up at their job, and just generally be super duper invasive.
She does say she's interested in mysteries because her father is an author of mystery novels, but that didn't feel genuine, It was just something she said to the police chief to avoid getting into too much trouble, Krissy needs to pick up one of her dad's books to see how investigating is actually done!
I did like the conclusion of the mystery.
I didn't expect that, so Death by Coffee did surprise me in that regard, It's also nice to see some diversity in this genre, since I haven't come across much at all so far, I just wish that Krissy had done things differently, There wasn't anything special about her, unless you count being ridiculously nosy as special, There should have been more subtlety in her tactics, instead of openly interrogating everyone for her own curiosity's sake,
Read more of my reviews at sitelinkPinkindle Reads amp s,
I am by no means a "mystery connoisseur", however it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that this is a bad mystery.
Which is a big disappointment, as I think it had potential to be a GOOD cozy mystery the premise was promising, and I enjoyed the first twothree chapters, but I think that was before I really got to know our narrator/protagonist and before I really got a grasp of the author's writing style.
This book quickly began plummeting the slippery slope and by the end, what I thought could perhaps pass with astar rating, landed in the waste dump of star.
stars if we're being generous
Beware, SPOILERS ahead
Death by Coffee is Alex Erickson's first book, or at least that's what the back cover tells me.
It's certainly his first cozy mystery, . . and oh dear, it shows,
We are introduced to our narrator/heroine Krissy Hancock, the daughter of a famed mystery writer who apparently never read any mysteries of any kind before, because if she had, she wouldn't have conducted her sleuthing in such a sloppy manner.
That was the first red flag for me, the way Krissy would just run up to someone and blatantly ask "who do you think is the murderer" Seriously, the girl doesn't understand the art of subtly.
And half the time she would draw attention to herself and the suspect by shouting their name across the street to stop them so they could talk, then act all shocked and surprised when they became irritated with her.
Although I suppose it's not entirely her fault, as these stupid people went ahead and ANSWERED HER QUESTIONS, when they didn't have to.
Was she a cop No, She was a nosy, busybody hypocrite, and I say "hypocrite", because she received her own fairshare of meanspirited gossip and grumbled about how unfair she was being treated, when she herself was every bit as guilty.
I think that's the main problem: Krissy, Protagonists shouldn't be perfect, nor do they have to be likableof the time, But you should like them at least a little bit, as readers often put themselves in the protagonist's shoes, ESPECIALLY when a book is told in firstperson.
But I rarely found myself liking Krissy, let alone sympathizing with her when things didn't go her way, As I said, she was a nosy hypocrite who never thought through her plans beyond "running them down and flinging them with questions".
She was always surprised when various people the smarter suspects in my opinion tried to stop her by resorting to physical violence as that seemed to be the ONLY way to get her to leave them alone.
Seriously, there's a moment when she's told to leave someone alone but then proceeds to BARGE INTO THEIR HOUSE, and when the cops arrive because the person called them, acts hurt and moans that she's the victim even though she honestly could be charged for a serious crime.
Also, the author does not write women well at all, Krissy went into this business with her best friend, Vicki, who she seems to despise, as everything Krissy "thinks" about her friend is negative, and what is meant to be a compliment or sound like a compliment comes across as pettyjealousy.
Oh, and she abandons Vicki to run the store
aboutof the time, or so it felt, Honestly, I wanted Vicki to fire her and hire someone else, And the big "reveal" at the end wasn't as shocking as perhaps the author thought it was
The ending fell flat for me and was pretty disappointing, Can't deny it was because of this that ultimately moved my rating fromto, Also, Krissy nearly got herself killed by doing something really stupid when confronting the killer, but pats herself on the back and calls herself "a hero" and believes that everyone who comes to the shop/cafe is "because they all want to see her and bask in the light of a local hero".
Gag and barf.
I already have booksandin this series I don't have high hopes that things will get better as the series goes along, but I'll try them at some point.
The only other big positive thing I can say is that they read fairly quickly, with roughlypage chapters, Anyway, there are much better cozy mysteries to read out there, so pick up one of those and give this a pass, .