When Ellie Christie moved back home to Colorado, to run the family’s bookstore with her older sister, she was anticipating a quiet bookish life. She had left after high school to experience more of the world. She had managed a beachside bookshop on a South Pacific resort island and was a private librarian for a antiquarian book collector in London. But when her parents decided they wanted to retire from the Book Chalet, Ellie moved back home and took up residence in the loft apartment over the shop.

She gets there just in time to help with the latest book club. Longtime bookseller Ms. Ridge is leading the discussion, but the group is quickly taken over by former actor and current internet bookish celebrity Morgan Marin, who wants to recreate a scene from the book, a séance. As she has her assistant pull out the Ouija board and set it up, Morgan talks about her excitement for the book, Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery.

Ms. Ridge excuses herself to make coffee for everyone, and Ellie is distracted by a noise that sounded like someone in the shop. The Book Chalet isn’t open yet, so she looks through the store to try to figure out if someone is there. But she can still hear Morgan and the book club, yelling out the letters that the Ouija board is spelling. D. E. A. D.

Ellie finds a strange man in the store, and he explains that he was supposed to meet “Cece” there. But there’s no one in the store by that name, and Ellie asks him to leave. He does, as Morgan’s voice continues to ring out. M. A. N.

Ellie goes back to the kitchen to find Ms. Ridge is gone. A search of the store doesn’t turn up the missing woman, which Ellie and her sister Meg agree is very unusual. And as they ride the gondola down the mountain later, to the town where Meg lives with her daughter Rosie and the sisters’ grandmother, they see the man again. He rushes into the gondola car ahead of them. But then something goes terribly wrong, because when he gets to the end of the bottom of the ride, he can’t get out of the car. The gondolier stops everything to try to help the man, but it’s no use.

The man is dead.

Ellie and Meg are determined to figure out who the man is, why he had been in their store, and who killed him. When it comes out that he was a disgraced financial advisor who had been sent to jail for defrauding investors, the suspect list becomes a little clearer. But some of those suspects hit a little close to home, to friends of the Chalet. And when someone breaks in to the bookshop, to make off with the bag that the dead man had left behind, Ellie and Meg feel that the crimes are hitting too close to home for comfort.

In order to protect their family’s bookstore and their favorite patrons, Ellie and Meg, along with Rosie and Gram, start their own investigation. But as they dig deeper, uncovering secrets and lies, they come closer and closer to a killer. Will they be able to find the answers they are looking for before a killer comes looking for them?

Dead and Gondola is a fun new Agatha-Christie-laden mystery set in the snowy mountains of Colorado. The Christie family is a close-knit group who look out for each other and those they care about. There is a grumpy store cat named Agatha who tends to steal all the scenes she’s in, and a group of locals who are full of personality. The mountain setting is charming, and the author trivia adds an extra bit of interest to the story.

I really enjoyed Dead and Gondola. I thought it was fun and creative. It starts really strong, and while I did get a little bogged down in the middle, I still wanted to get to the end of the story. I love this Christie family, and I hope that we readers will have more opportunities to visit the Book Chalet as they do more Marpling and solve more crimes (and for Agatha, eat more cat treats). But mostly I want to sit in a quiet corner of this bookshop and read a good mystery.

Egalleys for Dead and Gondola were provided by Bantam Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Another cozy mystery that I loved. A coming-home story. Small-town folks. Family-owned bookstore with their own bookclub that could potentially be descendants from Agatha Christie. A grumpy cat named "Agatha" in honor of the brilliant author. A very mysterious murder. A disappearance. A murderer on the loose. What's there not to love? With everything that is going on, you won't get bored. I need more book from this author. It may seem like it's a lot going on but it is so entertaining and that is just te purpose of this novel, I believe.

I really really enjoyed this debut series. I love the way the characters work together, and how they were all close knit throughout the whole village. I can’t wait to read more from this series.


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Cozy Mystery? Yes, please! The Christie sisters and their cat Agatha love mysteries and their favorite novelist. Their bookshop is known for a cozy destination, gorgeous views and maze like shelves. When a rockslide puts their town in lockdown there is no one in and no one out. When a mysterious visitor in their bookshop dies it’s time for them to help figure out The Who, what and why of the circumstances. This is the start of a fun series and i am excited to see where it goes!

Thank you #Bantam and #Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this fun murder mystery was so fun. They use all they have learned from reading murder mysteries to try and solve a murderous death that has taken place in their store. With twists and lots of evidence trying to find out who the guilty party is!

I was intrigued by the connection to Agatha Christie, but the mystery was just okay for me. I kept pushing myself to move forward with ready and not get distracted. I wanted to love this book, but it didn’t deliver enough for me.

Dead and Gondola is a great cozy read and also the first book in a series. The town where this novel takes place is called Last Word, there is a bookstore and the owners last name is Christie! This book has everything you could want in a cozy - a great group of quirky characters in a small town, a very grumpy cat and a mysterious death. We get to go along for the ride as the two sisters who own the town's bookstore solve the mystery. And the best part is there are more books to come so we will get to visit these great characters again!

Really enjoyed this cozy mystery set in the Colorado mountains! This has all the elements of a great cozy mystery - small town, interesting characters, a locked room mystery, and the main setting is a family-owned bookstore (whose family might be related to the Queen of mystery, the great Agatha Christie). After a mysterious stranger shows up to their Agatha Christie-themed book club and then dies inside the gondola, the Christie sisters are on the case. There are plenty of suspects and clues throughout before the murderer is revealed.

I really liked this mystery and am looking forward to more books in the series.

Title: Dead and Gondola
Author: Ann Claire
Pub Date: Nov 2022 OUT NOW!

Dead and Gondola is a cozy mystery of the Christie Sisters and their cat Agatha. The sisters own a bookstore in the heart of a snowy town in Colorado. As the sisters are hosing an event, a mysterious man comes into the shop. Later that evening, the man is found dead. The town works to find out who the killer is and what their motive was.

While I enjoyed the premise of this story, there were parts of this story that I didn't fully enjoy. I wanted more character development. There were also a lot of characters in the story and I had a difficult time keeping them all straight while I was reading. About half way through the book, the book really sped up and I enjoyed the mystery. I wanted to know who completed the crime and why!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Books for this pre-released ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What can I say, I love a cozy mystery! I read this wintertime book in the middle of summer in the PNW and still couldn't put it down. Set in a fictional small and snowy Colorado town, I fell in love with each of the characters (especially Agatha the bookstore cat, of course). Bonus points for the MC running a bookshop.

Was it cutesy and silly? Yes. Were there murder and mystery and plot twists? Also yes. Look, this book isn't promising anything more than it delivers. And that's perfect for me.

This book was fantastic. It has lively characters and a wonderfully addictive plot. It was so interesting that I kept turning pages and I was finished before I realized it. I would like to read more of this well written mystery series.

Dead and Gondola is a fun, cozy mystery. There is a book store, a grumpy cat, plenty of Agatha Christie references, snow and murder. Enjoyable read, likable main characters and interesting townsfolk.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

This is just a really good novel!
Imagine a warm, cozy bookstore owned by people that love books. In the mountains, in the winter.
A small group of characters and a murder, a near murder, and a disappearance. Also, a cat famous on the internet.
This small group of book lovers solve these crimes among books and some delicious sounding baking.
A great read for a winter day.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me this ARC.

From my blog: Always With a Book

It’s not too often that I read cozy mysteries anymore, but this was one that I just could not resist. I have developed quite a passion for anything to do with Agatha Christie and I have to say this was quite a fun little mystery and I look forward to seeing how this series progresses!

There is so much going for this series. First, it is set in a bookshop – what’s not to love?!? And then there are all the Agatha Christie references. I may not have read all her books, but even I could appreciate many of them and found this to be just a delightful, fun cozy that kept me engaged from start to finish. The grandmother was a hoot and I found that any scene with her in it had me in stitches. The pace moves quite briskly, keeping you on your toes and I felt guessing all the way through. The author does a great job using the Colorado mountain town to her advantage, especially the gondola and the storm…I could feel the cold and felt that this was a unique way to frame a murder.

As far as first books in a series go, I felt that this properly gave us a good foundation for what is to be a fun series. I enjoyed getting to know the Christie sisters, though I did feel that we got to know Ellie a little better than we did Meg, but perhaps that was done on purpose and in the next book we will get to know Meg more? Again, because I haven’t read all of Agatha Christie’s books I could not tell you if this particular mystery was based on one of her books or not, but I did love all the biographical details about Agatha herself that were peppered throughout the story – some I already knew, such as the surfing information, and some I did not know.

I will definitely be quite eager to get my hands on the next book in this series when it comes out and I do hope that in the meantime I am able to read more of Agatha Christie’s books. I had signed up to participate in the #ReadChristie2022 and failed miserably, but I am going to try again in 2023.

Dead and Gondola by Ann Claire is a cute, Christmas themed book that appears to be the most recent in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series. The family-owned bookstore in sky country is the center of the story. A death on the local ski lift begins the mystery this time. The story unfolds as expected so I skimmed the last 3/4 of the book. Enjoyable and predictable. You will like it.

I love Cozy Mystery books. So, I am happy to add this book and author to my collection of favorite Cozy Mysteries. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series, I loved all the characters that make up the town. Thank you NetGalley and Bantam Books for allowing me to have a glimpse of this first installment of the Christie Bookshop mystery series. I most certainly will continue reading this series and recommend it to others that enjoy cozy mysteries. The murder/mystery was creative, kept my interest, and balances nicely with the introduction of the characters, town, and setting up the overall theme and feel of the series.

Dead and Gondola takes place in a town called Last Word Colorado. Ellie Christie is the main character along with her sister, Meg. They are the co-owners of their family book store called The Book Chalet. I adored all the literary references thrown into story. For instance the bookstore owners last name is Christie but no official relation proven to the Queen of Crime, the cat named Agatha and the many parallels and quotes sprinkled in. The story begins with book club gathering for a book discussion and a séance led by a retired hollywood star, who has a thing for the dramatics. A stranger walks in maybe lost but defiantly looking for something or someone. The stranger leaves the shop but has left his sachel behind. The owners cleaning up after the book club find it. They see the stranger getting into a gondola car. They get into the next car hoping they can catch up with the man to let him know about his satchel and book. When they get to he bottom station they notice that the man did not get out of the car. The base-station gondolier finds him dead and calls the police. Once we find out who the stranger really is the town is surprised. The Christie sisters spring into action to find out why the stranger is dead, where the missing book and sachel went, and why did their assistant disappear when the stranger showed up?

I can't wait to see what happens next in this series. Thanks again NetGalley and Bantam Book.

The title Dead and Gondola caught my eye before anything else. Once I learned it was the first in a new cozy mystery series I was sold. Elle and Meg run their family's bookshop the Book Chalet a three-generation bookshop set in a ski town. This book is filled with personality and lots of red hearings. Can't wait to see more!

Ellie Christie lives above her family books store with her cat Agatha. When a murder happens in their small mountain town, the Christie sisters feel the need to solve the crime like their favorite author. This book had a lot of Agatha Christie feels to it, and it was a fun read, but I felt that the characters kept getting confused due to the abundance of characters. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC. 3.5 stars

I love a mystery set in a bookstore, and this was no exception. The Christie sisters are running their family's historic bookshop, The Book Chalet, when a stranger wanders in acting, well, strangely. Later, this same stranger is found dead on the gondola, and the town is blocked in by a rockslide, meaning all the suspects must stay in place.

This was a fun read. I love the Agatha Christie references, and the workings of the bookstore itself. The Christie sisters are fun, engaging main characters, surrounded by a good supporting cast. The ending was really shocking, and I was really impressed the author went there as opposed to where I think some cozy mysteries might have played it out. I'm excited for the rest of this series.

Dead and Gondola by Anne Claire (A Christie Bookshop Mystery #1) 3 stars

The first book in the series about the Christie sisters that own a historic bookshop called the Book Chalet. The only way to access the Book Chalet is through a ski gondola and things start to go south when a recent visitor to their bookshop is found dead on the gondola. What follows is an entertaining first entry into the cozy mystery genre. Although a bit slow at times, the story had the necessary twists and turns to make it interesting. With fun references to Dame Agatha, I look forward to next book in this series.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for this ARC.