With a Kiss I Die, the second Theater Copy mystery from cozy author J. A. Hennrikus (aka Julia Henry, Julianne Holmes) finds Sully Sullivan in Boston helping her friend Dimitri with the production of Romeo and Juliet he's been asked to direct at the Bay Repertory Theater, and trying to solicit funding for the Cliffside Theater back home in Trevorton. When Sully's ex-husband, Gus, is suspected in the murder of wealthy Mimi Cunningham, Sully must find Gus, discover the murderer, and keep herself and those closest to her safe, all while ensuring that the play goes on. Quickly paced, and a very surprising ending. Loved it! A+++

An engaging and entertaining book, it was a lot of fun to read.
The mystery is solid and the plot is fast paced, never a moment of bore.
I liked the plot, the cast of characters and the style of writing.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Midnight Ink and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine

This is the 2nd installment of the Theater Cop series. I did not read the first book and I think this did impact my enjoyment of this book. Don’t get me wrong I did still enjoy it, however, I think there are references and relationships that are alluded to that I did not know because of the first book. In this book Edwina “Sully” Sullivan goes to Boston to help her friend Dimitri as he took over a production of Romeo and Juliet and is in over his head. Sully ends up helping with just about everything and attends a party which has the couple who funds grants for local theaters she is all over it. After the party the wife is found murder and then her ex-husband Gus disappears becomes a suspect she must jump in and begin investigating. I did enjoy the story and I do recommend you read the series in order. I am planning to go and read the first installment. I think that should fill me in on some of the missing gaps in my mind on the characters

This is the 2nd installment of the Theater Cop series. I did not read the first book and I think this did impact my enjoyment of this book. Don’t get me wrong I did still enjoy it, however, I think there are references and relationships that are alluded to that I did not know because of the first book. In this book Edwina “Sully” Sullivan goes to Boston to help her friend Dimitri as he took over a production of Romeo and Juliet and is in over his head. Sully ends up helping with just about everything and attends a party which has the couple who funds grants for local theaters she is all over it. After the party the wife is found murder and then her ex-husband Gus disappears becomes a suspect she must jump in and begin investigating. I did enjoy the story and I do recommend you read the series in order. I am planning to go and read the first installment. I think that should fill me in on some of the missing gaps in my mind on the characters.

I read this before reading the first book in the series, which may have impacted by enjoyment of the story. There were multiple references to events from the previous book, but not enough to fill in all of the gaps, especially those involving Sully and the men in her life. As a child I was involved in many productions of A Christmas Carol at a community theatre, so knowing that was a big part of the first book has made me want to go back and read the first book. As for book two, I thought it was a little slow in getting the murder storyline moving, but about 2/3 of the way through the book it really picked up and I couldn't put it down until I knew who the murderer was. The twist towards the end was clever, but did call into question how competent the police were. At times I was frustrated with Sully as a character, she's this strong, independent, and smart woman but then spends way too much time blaming herself for past events and lamenting about her failed romantic relationships. Also, I couldn't figure out why Gus was in anyway involved with Kate, he was described as a good, stand-up kind of guy and she was just awful.

The ins and outs of high finance weave a tangled web in this intriguing mystery Sully Sullivan, former cop turned theater general manager, finds herself up to her eyeballs in two murders and embezzlement. Some of the trouble points to her ex- husband.

A review will be posted on www.MapYourMystery.com on March 11.

WITH A KISS I DIE by J. A. Hennrikus is the second book and my first read, in the Theater Cop Mystery Series. The mystery is self-contained within this novel, however there are relationships and characters who appear to have been established in the first book. Because of that, it was a little difficult to get into the book. Descriptions for the secondary characters and their relationship to Sully, the protagonist for this series, were not as well defined as I would have liked in order to visualize the people and places of this novel.
Sully, who was a police officer, now off the force for reasons that are never fully explored in this book, is executive director for a small theater company in Massachusetts. This is a strange leap and it would help understand Sully better if the reasons and path for this transition were at least cursorily explained.
Many of Sully’s ties, both personal and with police, are still in Boston. For this book, a friend from her theater, the Cliffside, has agreed to direct a show in Boston, taking over for a director who left after rehearsals were done and after the design for set and costumes had already been completed. Sully’s friend, Dimetri, finds the set-up almost impossible, starts having difficulty at the theater with their staff, and Sully steps in to help bring order out of chaos.
Once in Boston, Sully moves in with friends who were apparently introduced in the first book. There are hints about questionable business dealings for these friends which compounds the problem they are having in overcoming the effects of a murder which was apparently the subject of the first novel in the series. In addition, there are hints at a former relationship between Sully and one of the male characters and now possibly a relationship between him and a friend of Sully’s. These remain mere hints, however, with no development of personal relationships or connections.
The main mystery happens when Sully’s former husband, Gus, disappears and the police indicate he is considered a prime suspect in some illegal corporate dealings as well as possibly being implicated in a woman’s murder. Convinced that he is innocent and possibly in trouble, Sully begins to search for Gus and stirs up the ire of one of the police officers involved in the murder. While he seems to have negative feelings toward Sully, this clash doesn’t really take center stage and doesn’t add any tension to the book.
In the end, Sully solves the murder and pulls all the threads together to show how they are all related. The mystery itself hinges on one little fact that isn’t revealed until the killer is almost unmasked, leaving the reader the possibility of solving the murder more by guess-work than through clues provided.
Thanks to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for providing me with an advanced digital copy of this novel in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

A rock solid and engaging mystery. The characters and whodunit were well written. I recommend this book.

When the director of Romeo and Juliet is replaced not long before the run begins, Sully Sullivan also agrees to help Dimitri since she knows how he operates. But heading in to Boston also gives her the opportunity to drop off some grant applications for her own theater while in town.

Given the opportunity to attend a party with the couple that funds the grants, Sully jumps at the chance. But the wife in the philanthropist couple is murdered after the party and Sully’s ex husband, Gus, is the main suspect. When soon after both Gus and Babs, the director of the Boston theater where she is helping out, both disappear, Sully finds herself back on the Boston beat as she tries to track them down.

The characters and writing are solid. The mystery has enough red herrings to leave you with a few solid suspects and yet keeps you guessing until the very end who did it and why. This was an enjoyable read and not having read the first book in the series did not leave any gaps. I look forward to the next entry in the series

What starts out as helping a production ends in murder. Edwina thought she was retired, but soon has to jump back into police work as her ex husband is the main suspect in the murder of a socialite. With well developed characters, a well written and executed plot, this book gives it all.