Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews is the first in a new cozy mystery series.

I always enjoy the cozy mysteries from Hallmark, and Murder by Page One is no exception. I absolutely loved all the book and writing themes running throughout the story, such as librarian, bookstore, newspaper, etc.

I found Marvey extremely relatable. She cares about those she loves, books, and crafting.

I cannot wait to try the peach cobbler recipe at the back of the book.

The narration by Janina Edwards was good. I was not sure about it at first, but it quickly grew on me. She did a great job managing all the different voices, so you knew who was talking.

If you love books with bookish themes, cozy mysteries, and peach cobbler, give Murder by Page One a try.

Also, I think this is one of my favourite covers that Hallmark Publishing has ever done.

I received an eARC and audiobook from Hallmark Publishing through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Murder by Page One is an entertaining cozy mystery. Well written plot with believable characters. Mystery fans will not be disappointed.

Rating: A | Reviewer: Wayne Jordan

When I closed the pages of MURDER BY PAGE ONE, I sighed with contentment. I’d just finish the first book in Olivia Matthews’ A Peach Coast Library Mystery Series. Words like cozy, quirky, suspenseful, and delightful, all came to mind because each of those words sum up what is good about this Hallmark debut release.

Our protagonist is Marvella ‘Marvey' Harris, a recent transplant from Brooklyn to the Southern town of Peach Coast in Georgia. She has taken the role and responsibility of promoting and marketing the library, and I found myself smiling each time she asked someone if he or she had a library card. But I digress. this review is about a death, murder and who-done-it, so that should be my focus. When Marvey is invited to a book signing, the last thing she expects is for the author to be murdered and for suspicion to fall on her close friend Jolene ‘Jo’ Gomez. Unfortunately, the two detectives investigating the case believe that Jo has done it, so Marvey, along with her group of friends and coworkers, set out to find the real murderer and prove that Jo is innocent.

I loved everything about this book: the quaint town with its southernism (LOL look out for Marvey’s notebook) and its wonderful sense of community; the smell of peach cobbler from the local restaurant permeates the air…and the solid murder mystery. The tension and suspense had me turning page after page as quickly, as I worked, along with Marvey and her group, to figure out the identity of the murderer.

I loved the eclectic group of friends, especially Spencer Holt, who, despite his wealth, is a genuinely nice and humble person. Of course, I love the crotchety old Floyd and Phoenix, Marvey’s cat, is a hoot. Annoyed about the move to Peach Coast, Phoenix pouts and lets Marvey know he is not at all please. Solid characterization is Ms. Matthews’ forte and the rich kaleidoscope of characters with their unique personalities is a perfect example of what makes Ms. Matthews such a great writer.

Peach Coast is a town where I enjoyed my brief stay. I can’t wait to go back. MURDER BY PAGE ONE has the feeling of a good murder mystery movie. Maybe we will get to see this series, and I hope there are more, move to the small screen. I’ll definitely be watching. Until then, I can’t wait to see who is the next to be murdered in Peach Coast!

Fun and entertaining debut mystery! Excellent plot eloquence with superbly distinguished characters. Looking forward to great adventures with Marvey and friends.

As a "Northerner" who used to live in the Dirty South, I definitely enjoyed this new series. I also appreciated the diverse set of characters. Can't wait for the next one.

I really struggled with this one just found it a bit too fluffy for my liking, (I prefer my books a bit more darker! )

Therefore I would invite you to try it for yourself as I really don't think I could give it a fair review as it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Do you have a library card? is a question you will be asked if you meet Marvey Harris. Her job is to increase community involvement at the library so the council will continue to fund it and hopefully increase their budget and she takes her job very seriously.

Marvey has made two great friends since her big move from Brooklyn, Spence, publisher of the Peach Coast Crier, and Jo, owner of the To Be Read Bookstore. The bookstore is where this story starts off for a book signing for local authors. One of the authors wanted to handle her set up herself but fails to do so before the event begins. In fact, it appears she never left the storeroom where her books were kept. When Jo, Spence, and Marvey try to track her down they make a horrific discovery. Author Fiona Lyle-Hayes is dead. She was brutally murdered right there at To Be Read. They are all stunned when the police quickly decide Jo is the killer. Jo begs for help and Marvey and Spence vow to find more relevant suspects. The killer starts to feel the heat and sets up some chilling events to try to get Marvey off the case. But she doesn’t back down, she gets even more determined to catch the killer.

As a cozy mystery lover Hallmark’s Movies and Mystery channel is a popular one on my television. I can easily see Murder by Page One as the start of a new series on their channel. I love that they are now publishing books.

Peach Coast appears to be a typical Southern town filled with genuine people including those that like to gossip and get all mixed up in everybody’s business. New girl in town, Marvey Harris already has a daily routine that puts her in the heart of gossip central. After the murder, a few folks are not afraid to speak their mind without any facts and get right in Marvey’s face to do so. All the characters are cleverly crafted. I really enjoyed Marvey’s confidence in almost everything she does. She is a little uncertain about getting involved in a murder investigation at first but she soon has the support of not only her friends but the entire library staff. Ms. Matthews has done an excellent job of fleshing out her characters while leaving plenty of room for them to grow over the course of what I hope will be a long-running series.

There was a very interesting subplot woven throughout the story. Marvey has a gray tabby cat named Phoenix who not adjusting well to the move from Brooklyn. His behavior was unique and at times funny but his person is taking the behavior to heart seeing one veterinarian and then another to try to find answers and ways to help her pet. It really gives us insight into Marvey but more so how what we do in our lives affects our lovable cats and dogs.

I found the police handling the case to be simpletons that took the easy way out without really doing any investigation or following leads to didn’t agree with their theory. Of course, that set up Marvey and Spence’s investigation nicely. The author plotted the mystery with plenty of twists and a few red herrings. My thinking was on the right track and the lead-up to the reveal refined everything for me. The pace was comfortable at first and then became more intense the further we read into the story.

I do have a couple of peeves. The book is full of southern charm and well-known sayings. Marvey is a very intelligent woman so I couldn’t believe she needed to keep track of the classic sayings and their true meanings and that she had to refer to her notes often. I also noticed that there was an overabundance of peach references from food, to clothes, and even the way people looked. And don’t get me wrong I know peaches are a big thing in Georgia and Peach Coast and I love peach cobbler but there is no way I could eat it every day. I did like that it was even part of a race event, but I think the reaction by Marvey proves my point.

I do love mysteries with libraries as a theme. Murder by Page One has set the Peach Coast Library Mysteries off to a splendid start. The core characters are very engaging and I want to get to know them better so I am looking forward to the second book in this series.

Cymbeline and Peach Coast Georgia seem to be just up the road from each other, both are picturesque small Georgia towns, not too near and not too far from the “big” cities of Atlanta and Savannah. Both are places where an outsider can be considered a “real” resident after not too much time, and both seem to be lovely places for a extremely amateur detective to take up the investigation of murder as a slightly dangerous hobby.

If you’re wondering, Cymbeline is the location of the Georgia B&B cozy mystery series, while Peach Coast is the setting for today’s cozy mystery, featuring Marvey Harris as the budding sleuth desperate to save her best friend in her new town, Jo Gomez, the owner of the oh-so-tempting To Be Read Bookstore.

Back to Marvey, who is always very tempted by that bookstore, as she is the recently transplanted Community Engagement Director at the Peach Coast Library. The more that she can raise awareness of the library and increase participation in all the wonderful things that the library has to offer, the better her chances of helping the library to get a much-needed budget increase – not to mention keep the job she moved from New York City (and the New York Public Library) to take.

Synergy between the library and the local bookstore is certainly part of her strategy as it is in real library life too. That Marvey and Jo have bonded over their mutual love of reading is icing on a very tasty cake.

Or it is until their big event at the bookstore, a multi-author book signing for several published authors who live in Peach Coast, is interrupted by the murder of one of those authors who is supposed to be signing her books.

But when Fiona Lyle-Hayes doesn’t come out for the signing, Marvey, Jo and local newspaper owner, editor AND reporter (also local heartthrob) Spence Holt start searching the store’s backrooms for their reluctant author. Only to discover her not-yet-cold corpse.

When the local cops seem to be taking the easy way out of solving the murder – accusing Jo because the body was found in her store – instead of actually investigating the crime, Marvey and Spence take the investigation into their own amateur hands.

After all, they’re both good at research, and they have much more open minds than the local deputies. The deputies want Jo to be guilty because she’s not a local and it would make their jobs easier all the way around if she were the culprit.

Marvey and Spence however, are sure that Jo is innocent – and certain that there were plenty of locals who had a much better motive – actually any motive at all – for killing one of the most unpopular people in town.

Their quest to find a better suspect makes a whole lot of people in Peach Coast extremely uncomfortable. People like the mayor, who controls the town’s, and therefore the library’s, budget; those local cops who don’t like having doubt cast on their investigative prowess – and the real killer hidden in the shadows.

Escape Rating B: Peach Coast, like Cymbeline, seems like a wonderful place to visit. One of those places where I wish I knew the town it was modeled on, because it would only be a day trip from home.

This is, after all, the start of a cozy mystery series and Peach Coast sounds so very cozy.

As the story begins, Marvey is very much an outsider in this small town, something that is often the case for detectives, whether amateur or professional, at least in fiction. She’s only been in town for four months, and no matter how long she stays she’ll always be considered a bit of an outsider. Except for being certain that her friend isn’t the murderer, Marvey doesn’t have any preconceived notions of who the murderer might be. But she does need more local knowledge than she has, and that’s where Spence comes in. His roots in the community go back generations, he knows everyone and everyone knows him. While he’s equally certain Jo didn’t do it, there are people in town he is more than inclined to believe are also innocent. That’s not an issue in this case but it might be if the series continues.

One of the things that worked very well in this amateur investigation was the way that all of the things they thought they knew about the victim turned out to be misleading at best and utterly false at worst. Because Fiona was an outsider, and because she tended to keep herself to herself, there was more gossip about her than fact and people believed the gossip because it was salacious.

Shy people are often thought to be arrogant and aloof, and Fiona got lumped into that kind of misjudgment.

The process of the amateur investigation, the one step forward two steps back nature of it, the false starts and hard stops, was done very well, even if a couple of things that happened made me feel like either I missed something or the detectives did. Specifically, we never did really get an explanation of why the local cops so very focused on Jo from the outset. She had zero motive, while the victim was a controversial figure around town to say the least, meaning that the number of people with seemingly excellent motives was rather high – much too high to be ignored by the cops. Something about that part of the scenario smelled rotten. I kept expecting the cops to either be involved or at least have their own motive for their behavior, but we didn’t see it.

That no one, neither the librarian nor the newspaperman nor the cops did any actual investigation of the victim’s life before she moved to Peach Coast felt like an obvious point that got overlooked by, clearly, everyone.

That being said, the whole thing was a lot of fun and I enjoyed following Marvey – and Spence – in the process of finding out who really done it. Also in what looked the very first steps of possibly exploring a relationship beyond mere friendship – or partners in solving crime.

Part of that enjoyment, part of the reason I picked up Murder by Page One in the first place, was that Marvey Harris was a librarian. And she read and felt like “one of us”, which made the book even more fun for this librarian to read and enjoy! (And as a librarian myself, I can’t resist recommending the Georgia B&B series, starting with Peach Clobbered, makes a terrific readalike for Murder by Page One and vice-versa!)

As this is the first book in a new series, I’m looking forward to a return visit to Peach Coast whenever Marvey finds herself involved in another case.

On the search for your next cozy mystery series? Check out the first book in the new Peach Coast Mystery series, Murder by Page One.

This new series has everything I love about a cozy mystery--- it takes place in the small town of Peach Coast full of interesting characters, it centers around both a library and a bookstore, and introduces us to librarian Marvey who it seems will become a fantastic amateur sleuth. Add in some Southern charm and a cute cat... and well, it truly is the making of an ideal cozy!

I have found that for me it is actually quite rare that I've started a cozy series at book one. Usually our sleuths have a couple of investigations under their belts so while still amateurs, they do have some experience. It's always fun to see these first cases like this one... it certainly had me looking forward to more. I loved the town and found myself wanting to go there myself... always a good sign in a small town book! It did take me a little bit to get into the story, but once I was in, I was hooked! While I did guess the whodunnit fairly early on in the book, it didn't impact my enjoyment of the story. There was enough suspicion thrown elsewhere to keep things interesting... with clues as to the WHY being revealed slowly to keep my hanging on.

Overall, this was a fun mystery and a series I look forward to reading more from. If you enjoy a good cozy and/or Hallmark mysteries, this is one you will want to check out for yourself!

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley for consideration. All thoughts are my own.

This is a charming new cozy debut of a promising series that I enjoyed reading. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinion is my own opinion.

This is the first in a new series Peach Coast Mystery series. Marvey Harris is our protagonist who has left her life in New York behind to move to the Southern comfort of the Peach Coast of Georgia. She accepted a position with the library of Director of Community Engagement. The library director hopes to improve upon their donations and build a steady budget. Marvey has fit right into the community quickly and easily made many friends. She has a best friend Jo who runs a popular book store and is fast friends with the editor of the local newspaper so she has solid friendships that are endearing . The three of them are close friends . When Marvey attends a book reading at her friends bookstore and the author is found dead in the store, her best friend is automatically on the police radar as prime suspect. Marvey and friends step in to investigate and save her friend as well as find the true suspect. A romance is brewing with Marvey for the next book and the sleuth kept me guessing to conclusion. I would predict Marvey has a genuine talent and proclivity for solving crimes and this will be a long running enjoyable cozy series. Very well done to the author . A cozy series I highly recommend.

Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews is a book about a librarian being asked to solve a murder to clear their friend's name.

Will Marvella save Jo's reputation and her bookstore?

Marvella Harris
Marvella "Marvey" Harris is in charge of getting more patrons to the library to get the funding they need. She is working on that while also solving a murder that is tied to her best friend. Besides that, Marvey seems to be a great character. She likes to help her friends and library patrons as much as she can. Marvey, to me, at times, seems to be a bit on the forgetting side of things. Other than that, she does seem to be doing what every sleuth does...getting under people's skin. Marvey is a good character and sleuth.

The Mystery
The mystery is that Marvey, Jo, and Spence found Fiona Lyle-Hayes in the back of the bookstore murdered. The police think that Jo killed Fiona as Jo is the only one that had the time to kill her. Marvey's on the trail of finding out who actually killed Fiona on Jo's pleading. She is trying her hardest to wafting through the clues and red herrings to figure it out and to tell the police. The hardest part for Marvey is getting them to listen to her. I figured out who killed her early on.

Three Stars
Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews is my first book by this author, and it really is a good book. Ms. Matthews does a great job of writing the story. I just found some things that took me out of the book for a bit. Marvey is a good character to have as the sleuth in this series. The red herrings didn't get me this time, though. I am giving this book three stars, and I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read cozies.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Book Tours publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews.

Until the next time,
Karen the Baroness

If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.

This is the first in a new series Peach Coast Mystery series. Marvella (Marvey) Harris has moved to Peach Coast Georgia from Brooklyn New York just four months ago when she accepted the position of Director of Community Engagement. Marvey has clearly made some quick friends as she refers to Jo (the book store To Be Read owner) as her best friend along with Spence Holt who is the Editor in Chief of the local newspaper (which his family owns). Spence and Marvey head to Jo’s bookstore on Saturday as they are hosting a book signing which includes local author Fiona Lyle-Hayes. As the book signing is getting started, Jo is irritated that Fiona still has not come back up front the back where she demanded she have a space to prep her books. When Jo, Spence and Marvey head to the storage room they are shocked to find a dead Fiona who has been murdered. Unfortunately, the local police are fixated on Jo as she owned the store and was seen having some words with Fiona. Jo asks for Marvey to help her clear name or at least find some other possible suspects as she is afraid, she is going to be arrested and put out of business. They also rope in Spence as he is from Peach Coast and his family owns several businesses in town. Spence has been trying to get Marvey to join him on the Peach Cobbler run and she agrees if he helps out. I have to believe there is pending romance between Spence and Marvey down the road but no romantic overtures in this story. Spence keeps trying to tell Marvey that her New York directness does not always work in southern conversations but it is nice to see that Marvey has made an impact on the town and she is well liked. Marvey receives immediate resistance from the police when Spence gives the names of some other possible suspects including Fiona’s deceased husband Buddy’s ex (Betty) and his son Bobby who were both at the book signing. There is also other suspects that the police refuse to look at. This was a good first in a series which has great promise. Marvey is very likeable and has made friends already throughout the town. Enjoyed this.

I enjoyed Olivia Matthew's other series starring Sister Lou (three mysteries) so, when I saw that she had started a new series, I had to read it. I wasn't disappointed. How could you go wrong with a transplanted librarian with a cat and a setting of a small Southern town. Marvella (Marvey to her friends) has left New York City in her quest to be more of a librarian than she was ever going to be in the Big City. She wanted to make a difference in the community and Peach Coast, Georgia looks like a great chance. In a short period of time she has already started a monthly book group and has attracted 25 people to join. (It might have gotten a boost when each meeting is going to end with Georgia Bourbon Pecan Pie and sweet tea - that sure would have me sticking around to the very end)
At a book signing at her friend, Jo's, bookstore, a killer strikes and Jo becomes the prime suspect. Marvey knows that's just not possible. She needs to investigate - which, in librarian speak, means doing what a librarian does best - research. Enlisting the help of her other friend, Spencer Holt, a gentleman with deep connections, who knows just about everyone in town and is also wealthy, they set out to track down a killer. Soon their investigation is joined by various library employees and the killer won't be free for long.
It was fun spending time with Marvella and her friends in Peach Coast. They were well developed and came across as people I would like to have as friends. The mystery was well crafted with a satisfying conclusion. If Hallmark decides to make this into one of their mystery series I will make sure to watch it.
My thanks to Hallmark Publishing and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Murder By Page One by Olivia Matthews is a Southern cozy mystery taking place in Peach Coast, Georgia. A small town certainly but not the smallest because it still has a newspaper the Peach Coast Crier. Living in the Southern US I can tell you that small town local papers are far and few between now. Being a transplant from Brooklyn, it was interesting to see the South through Marvey’s eyes. I laughed when she checked her Southern expression translator for the meaning of an expression.

Easily a Hallmark version of a much younger Murder She Wrote character. After having read so many paranormal cozy mysteries lately I found this one to be mild. Not in a bad way mind you. In fact, I liked it, just no magic or psychic help. While Marvey often holds conversations with her cat, there is no evidence the cat is even listening much, let alone giving her help. Marvey needs her wits to solve this murder mystery. The other helpful new friends also do their part rounding out an enjoyable but not scary in the least mystery. Truly a cozy mystery with the only hint of romance which had Marvey literally scoffing at such a suggestion.

If you like books, like the references to books and enjoy an easy read mystery then this is the book for you. Would I read another book by this author, yes I would. Also, I think it would make an entertaining series on the Hallmark channel.

I really enjoyed this start of a new series and the idea of the main character having two strong sets of friends. She had her bestie Jo of course, and their other good friend Spence. What was so cool about Spence was that despite the fact he was super rich, he didn't flaunt it or act all stuffy about it. He dug in and investigated with his friends like any regular guy who might have had an in with the coroner's office, and he kept a presence and job at the local paper his family owned. It was great that he had the means it took to get people together for questioning purposes aka dinner party too. Jo was very blessed to have a determined friend like Marvey trying to keep her from going to prison for a murder she didn't commit. Marvey was someone I could quickly become friends with.

The other group of friends was Marvey's library co-workers. I really liked all of them, especially the ol' curmudgeon Floyd who wasn't really such a crusty guy after all. And Corrinne was such a nice boss which was really refreshing. I read so many books where the boss is a jerk, but Corrinne was genuinely a good person to her employees. I got the feeling that she'd never ask them to do anything she wouldn't do. They did a good job presenting a united front for their budget increase request as well as helping Marvey with her sleuthing.

I had sort of guessed the killer once the clues fell into place. It was a great showdown with Jo and Marvey working together on it. The detective and his sidekick weren't painted in too bad of a light. Kind of a good balance where I could picture the conversations between them as not too heavy or light if it was done as a Hallmark mystery movie.

This was a great setting for a mystery series, and it was interesting to have a New York transplant come into town. I got a kick out of Marvey's notebook on Southernisms and their translations, lol. I thought the Cobbler Crawl sounded pretty cool and was glad to see Marvey as Spence's partner in it. Gotta admit, I'd be there for the cobbler not the race part! I'm anxious to see what this fun group gets into in the next book! The key players were definitely people I came to care about and would like to visit with again!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

Marvella Harris moved from New York to Peach Coast, Georgia where she now works as the director of community engagement with the Peach Coast Library.

In her spare time, she makes book-themed jewelry which she gives to family and friends for birthdays and holidays.
Her friend, Jolene Gomez owns To Be Read, an independent bookstore.

Members of Peach Coast Library Book Club have gathered to support a writer named Fiona Lyle-Hayes’s book signing. When she fails to make an appearance Marvey, Jo and Spence—a mutual friend and publisher and editor in chief of *The Peach Coast Crier*— go searching for her and find Fiona lying in a pool of blood in the bookstore’s storage room.

Fiona was a member of Coastal Fiction Writers and was the group’s treasurer. Shortly after Jo calls to tell Marvey that the police think she’s a suspect since the crime was committed in her store. She then asks Marvey to help clear her name.

Meanwhile, Marvey’s cat Phoenix is having trouble settling in his new environment. Two visits to the vet don’t seem to improve the cat’s mood.

The book includes a Classic Peach Cobbler recipe 🍑 A great start to the series. Would recommend

Thank you to Olivia Matthews, NetGalley, and Hallmark Publishing for the ARC of this book.

Murder by Page One is the first book in a new small-town librarian cozy mystery series (with cat), by Olivia Matthews. Released 23rd March 2021 by Hallmark, it's 336 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a Hallmark series. It's comfy, cozy, well written, and delivers exactly as expected. The language is squeaky clean, nary a curse word to be seen. The violence is all off scene and without explicit gore. There's a light romance element but it's not a big focus of the book. The only public displays of physical affection are between the librarian (Marvey) and the top of her grumpy-but-lovable cat's fuzzy head.

The writing is fine, the plotting and narrative arc are well controlled and the denouement and resolution are satisfying. The book's ending foreshadows the continuation of the series. I would recommend this one to readers of the subgenre (there's even a recipe for peach cobbler at the end of the book). I'm looking forward to the next book(s) in the series.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

It’s always fun to share release date by reviewing the first in a new series. And, Olivia Matthews’ Murder by Page One features a charming librarian from New York who is trying to adjust to Southern ways. She doesn’t really want to become comfortable with discovering a body in her favorite bookstore.

Marvella Harris moved to Peach Coast, Georgia four months earlier, accepting the position of director of community engagement at the local library. She hopes to raise awareness and funds for the library. She’s also friends with Jolene Gomez, the owner of To Be Read. So, Marvey and Spencer Holt, publisher and editor-in-chief of the local newspaper, show up to support Jo’s event featuring a number of local authors. Fiona Lyle-Hayes, a debut mystery writer, has a few peculiar demands, but Jo’s pleased she’s signing at the bookstore. Fiona’s book received rave reviews. Fiona herself isn’t very popular in Peach Coast. She’s the widow of a much older man who was previously married and has an adult son. She seems to have few friends in the local writers’ group. So, with all those potential enemies, why do the local police immediately decide Jo is Fiona’s killer when her body is found in the storeroom?

Why does Marvey agree to help Jo look for other suspects? Marvey is a librarian, not a detective. But, her friend is in trouble. “At its core, an investigation was research, learning about people, tracking down clues, and putting together the results of your inquiries.” A librarian, with the help of a journalist, can do that.

This is the latest mystery from Hallmark Publishing, and it fits the Hallmark brand. There are likable characters in a charming small town. The death is off stage, so readers don’t see the killing. There’s a change in the original perception of the victim. Matthews’ latest mystery is a cozy that fits into the Hallmark stable.

I always like amateur sleuths who have a reason to get involved. There have been a number of librarian sleuths who use their skills in learning about people and doing research. Marvella Harris is a welcome addition to their ranks in Murder by Page One.

Murder By Page One
A Peach Coast Library Mystery
by Olivia Matthews
Hallmark Publishing
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 23 Mar 2021


I am reviewing a copy of Murder By Page One through Hallmark Publishing and Netgalley:


Marvel is a librarian who is from Brooklyn but is adjusting to life in small town Georgia, she enjoys making jewelry that is book themed, she also looks after her cranky cat as well as supporting events for both readers and authors. Before long Marvel discovers a dead body in her bookstore.



After Marvey’s best friend becomes a suspect in the murder, she develops a new hobby , solving a murder mystery. She uses her talents for research, the knowledge she gleaned from crime novels, and a whole lot of determination, she pursues the truth. But as she gets closer to the answers could she be facing a deadly plot twist?



I give Murder by Page One five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Marvey Harris has recently relocated to Peach Coast, Georgia, to take a job in the local library. Among her new friends is Jo Gomez. Jo owns the local bookstore, and this Saturday, Marvey is at the store to support Jo, who is hosting a book signing for the local authors group. When one of the authors fails to return from the storeroom, Jo and Marvey find her dead body on the floor. With the police looking at Jo, Marvey steps in to figure out what really happened. Can she find the killer?

This may be the first in the series, but I already feel right at home. Peach Coast sounds like a great town, and I love Marvey, Jo, and Spence, the third member of their trio. We never meet the victim alive, but I liked how well we got to know her as the story progressed. The rest of the cast could be a little better defined, but I’m sure that will come as the series progresses and they get more page time. The story starts quickly, but the pacing does slow a little in the middle. Still, the climax is logical and suspenseful. There’s a recipe for peach cobbler at the end. While not a culinary cozy, you’ll definitely be craving it by the time the book is over. I’m looking forward to returning to Peach Coast soon.