Sometimes, you just need to escape to a cozy mystery. If the setting is a book shop and there is a cat and the shop owners like to think they are descendants of Agathe Christie, well, what more do you need?

When a mystery man shows up at the bookshop during the book club meeting, and then later drops dead, the Christie family starts sleuthing. There is a local police force too, and they are no slouches, but no one gets into solving mysteries like avid mystery readers. Agathe Christie fans will be tickled by all the references to her books. Mystery fans will enjoy watching Ellie and Meg track down all the clues. And for those that prefer not to know the ending at the beginning – there will be lots of surprises in store.

Dead and Gondola delighted me. Cozy mystery fans – read this one!

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book. My review is my honest opinion.

Ellie Christie has recently moved back to her small hometown in Colorado to help her sister Meg run their family’s well known historic bookstore. She’s so excited to be returning home to the store filled with endless books, hours of cozy reading, mysteries a plenty and her favorite little feline the grumpy Agatha. When a man is found dead on the gondola the Christie sisters are thrust right into the middle of a murder investigation. They have no other choice but do what their favorite literary character Miss Marple would do and solve the crime.
Dead And Gondola is a cozy mystery chalked full of mystery and Agatha Christie vibes. I breezed right through this one and enjoyed every minute of it. As someone who loves Agatha Christie this one was a solid hit for me. I loved the wintery, small town setting where everyone knows everyone and one snowstorm can cut them off from the real world. I also simply adore it when characters are really bookish and quite addicted to reading and books. This says it’s the first in a series and I absolutely can’t wait to see what the Christie sisters get into.

Dead and Gondola was the perfect cozy mystery novel for this late fall/early winter season! I loved the setting at an Agatha Christie themed bookshop! This was very fun and charming and kept you guessing at whodunnit. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Ellie Christie has recently moved back to Colorado to run her family’s historic bookshop. Only accessible by ski gondola, the Book Chalet is a book lovers paradise but when a man is found dead on the gondola, the town shuts down and panic sets in. Ellie realizes he was a visitor in the shop, leaving behind an Agatha Christie novel.

In pure Miss Marple fashion, Ellie sets out to solve this mystery before another murder takes place. “A fair-play plot, vivid characters, fascinating facts about Dame Agatha, and an intelligent and appealing protagonist make this a winner.”

Tucked away in a small mountain town at the top of a gondola is the Book Chalet, bookshop and current home to Ellie Christie. Ellie is glad to be home, running the family bookshop with her older sister, Meg, and reading plenty of mysteries. During a weekend bookclub, a séance predicts a death, a stranger interrupts the proceedings, and after a man is found dead on the gondola, the tiny ski town is filled with potential suspects.

What a cute, wintery, cozy mystery! At times it felt a little slow, but overall it was just a very charming murder mystery, set in a picturesque ski town. With plenty of nods to Agatha Christie’s famous novels, this is a fun read for any fan of a murder mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I'll take a cozy book any day, but ultimately, this felt a bit too cozy. I think you have to be in a very specific mood in order to fully appreciate this one. Nevertheless, these characters were sweet and likable, with a mystery I actually cared to see through all the way - which has been tough for me lately! Looking forward to #2.

Such a cute cozy mystery! The Christie sisters, their Gram, Meg’s daughter Rosie, and a cast of friends in support made this book fun and easy to read. The mystery had some twists and red herrings but it felt like a lighter mystery overall. Can’t wait to read book 2 in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Dead and Gondola is a fun read. Ellie Christie goes back to her hometown in Colorado to open a bookstore and ends up with a murder mystery on her hands. Inspired by Agatha Christie (no relation) Ellie and her sister Meg put on their detective caps to find the murderer.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was a delightful cozy mystery, set in the Colorado mountains where the most popular form of transportation is a gondola or snowshoes. The Christie sisters are the fifth generations of the Book Chalet and big fans of Agatha Christie. There is a wonderful cast of quirky characters and a cat named Agatha. I found all the references to Agatha Christie very interesting. When a murder occurs in the gondola below the one the Christie sisters are in, they decide to investigate as it seems that the characters involved have something to do with the bookstore. It was a good book to settle down with under a blanket with a hot drink! I look forward to the next book in the series!

Also reviewed on B&N under 1IrishEyes430 and Kobo under IrishEyes430

I enjoyed this cute cozy mystery set in the town of Last Word, CO. My one complaint is that the book felt a bit long as I did find it to drag a bit in the middle - but overall this kept me guessing more than most cozy mysteries do and I look forward to reading the next in the series!

Dead and Gondola
By Ann Claire
Dead and Gondola is a cute, adorable little “who done it”. Set in the picturesque Colorado town of Last Word, we meet Ellie Christie and her sister, Meg. Devoted Agatha Christie fans, the siblings run The Book Chalet, the adorable family-owned bookstore. In this town, you’ll find your typical small-town characters as well as a few mysterious ones. The plot is a bit slow for a quarter of the book and I found Ellie’s interest in the case a little confusing. Very little violence and a few red herring thrown in, I found myself losing interest in the beginning. Luckily the pace does pick up and I found the conclusion to be satisfying.

I enjoyed this book until about halfway. I felt that when I saw I had hit the halfway mark, we should have been much further along in the plot then we were and I still had 50% to go. When I got to 75% I was exasperated because the book could have been over already and yet there was 25% left to go.

I felt this author tried too hard to be funny and the main character came off as pathetic as opposed to this seasoned traveler and book lover she was supposed to be. The whodunit was clever but as I said, it took so long to get the reveal that I was fed up with the book at that time.

There are a lot of unnecessary red herrings and extraneous plot bits that can be edited out. I hope that happens in the final product. I would not read another book if this becomes a series.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this series debut. The Christie sisters are charming additions to the cozy mystery genre, with their bookshop high in the Colorado mountains. This is rather standard fare for a cozy, with a bit of Agatha Christie lore thrown in. I look forward to seeing how this series develops, since it has a great setting that opens up a lot of possibilities for future books.

*Thank you to Random House/Ballantine, Ann Claire, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/dead-and-gondola/

“An active imagination was an occupational hazard of a life with books.”

In Ann Clair’s debut, Dead and Gondola, the protagonist is a young bookseller in the small town of Last Word, CO, a small hamlet. As with most cozy mysteries, there is a grandma wearing velour tracksuits, a pair of sisters, lots of crazy characters and tons of red herrings. It is a very welcome diversion from the dark mysteries I am used to reading.This book is a cute and warm diversion from dark suspense thrillers. When I looked up the definition of a cozy mystery, this one fit the bill perfectly, because everything about it is cozy and they all seem to be amateur sleuths.

Ellie Christie has just come back to Last Word to manage the family bookstore, The Book Chalet, with her sister, Meg. In fact, she will live in the small studio above the store. They are aided by their grandmother and Ms. Ridge. Ellie and Meg’s parents have retired and gone off to travel, leaving their daughters in charge of the bookstore. The Book Chalet is the very definition of cozy, with aisles of overstuffed bookcases stacked up to the ceiling and cozy little nooks and overstuffed chairs for people to sit and read. A heated glass porch overlooks the vistas of Last Word and the gondola that goes up and down the mountain, transporting skiers and snowboarders to their destination. They even have a Book Club meeting once a week, comprised locals which include a gossip columnist, a poet cowboy and a retired film star. What could go wrong? Murder.

The mystery begins when then their weekly book club meeting starts with one of their members holding a Ouija board, stating there will be a seance. Ms. Ridge, their trusty assistant, does not like this at all. She goes into the kitchen to make coffee and never returns. When the door rings to announce a customer, Ellie goes to welcome them and discovers that Ms. Ridge is missing, as well. There is no customer. When the intruder returns the next day, he has questions. But he also leaves his satchel behind. Meg and Ellie do not know how to find him so they go through his bag and discover a lot of post-it notes, but also a first edition of an Agatha Christie novel, written under a pseudonym, which is very valuable. When they see the stranger boarding a gondola to go down the mountain, they chase after him and end up in the gondola behind him. But the gondola stops almost near the bottom. When the stranger didn’t get out, they found him stabbed in the back. But how? He was by himself!

I really enjoyed this book. Though, sometimes with so many characters, it is hard to keep them straight. There were also several mysteries happening at the same time; who murdered the stranger? Where is Ms. Ridge?. Though with a great cast of crazy unique characters, it was a lot of fun. And who doesn’t want to live in a book chalet, next to a chocolate shop. This is the first in the series and I can’t wait to read more!

Dead and Gondola was the perfect cozy mystery! Ellie Christie, no relation to the Agatha Christie, unfortunately, and her sister Meg run the family bookstore, the Book Chalet. One would think that nothing wrong could happen in the small town of Last Word, Colorado. But that's why it's the perfect setting for a wintry mystery with a variety of small town characters - the former actress, the knowledgeable gondola runner, the stuffy hotel owner, the former high school hunk, the quiet bookstore helper, and one famous Agatha C. Christie, the grumpy cat resident of the Book Chalet. With everyone stuck in the small town after a winter storm cuts off access and a man mysteriously dies on the gondola, the whole town wonders who is capable of murder? The new police chief has her suspicions, but will the Christie sisters figure it out before an innocent person goes to jail?

It had me guessing about the mystery and who did it until the very end. I had my suspicions, of course, but couldn't quite believe that's where the mystery was headed! I love the idea of a sister "detective" team, though one seems more into mysteries than the other.. I hope the author will create more fun and wonderful stories set in the quaint ski town of Last Word.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Start of a new cozy mystery series that takes place in a ski town in Colorado. The two Christie sisters are running a bookstore with the help of family and the resident cat,, Agatha. When a man is found dead in the gondola they put their sleuthing skills to work.

This was a lighthearted fast paced cute mystery book. Another great cozy mystery for the holiday season. Curl up with a hot drink, a blanket, and this book for a great time. I loved the characters and the romance and I can not wait for book two.

Meet the Christies: Ellie and older sister Meg, who’ve recently taken over operating the Book Chalet mountain bookstore in idyllic Last Word, Colorado. Though they wish they were related to their beloved Agatha - they aren’t, but like her, they do love a good mystery! They’d prefer to be reading them, of course, but when a peculiar gentleman interrupts their book club’s re-enacted fictional séance looking for “Cece” and later winds up dead one gondola over from them, what started as the stuff of fiction becomes a real-life murder mystery for them to solve!

With the loving support of their beloved Gram and Rosie, Meg’s wise-for-her-age 14-year-old, Ellie and Meg will consider the guilt or innocence of a host of Last Word’s bookstore patrons, friends and town visitors. Ellie’s adorably grumpy Siamese cat, Agatha C. Christie, might even deign to offer a couple clues with the right amount of fishy treats and cuddles!

Along the way we meet Morgan Marin, retired famous actress and her aloof assistant, Renée-Claude, professional gossip, Piper Tuttle, cowboy poet, Emmet Jackson, dependable shop assistant and bastion of knowledge, Ms. Ridge, her nosy neighbor, Glynis Goodman, gondola operator and mystery buff, Rusty Zeller and his outdoor adventure loving son, Syd, and Morgan’s half brother, Simon Trent. They all add a lot of personality to the goings-on!

Who did it and why? I recommend you try this charming debut, the first in a new mystery series, Christie Bookshop, to find out! It’s definitely a cozy, so no thrills or chills here, but you will find a very likeable pair of MC’s and an entertaining and eclectic supporting cast to enjoy. You’ll also find one of the most enticingly described bookstores EVER. Seriously, I want to go there! Grab your cup of hot cocoa, cuddle your cat or dog if you have one, and lose yourself for a few hours in snowy, beautiful Last Word!

★★★★

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, NetGalley and author Ann Claire for the opportunity to honestly review this ARC. It’s now available.

Ellie Christie has returned to her hometown of Last Word, Colorado to assist her sister, Meg with the operation of her family’s bookstore. On their way home from work one evening, they witness a murder and their beloved bookstore clerk is suspected of it, so they set out to prove her innocence. Along the way, they discover deep secrets involving several townsfolk.

Dead and Gondola is a sweet, cozy mystery with endearing characters and beautiful, scenic surroundings. For me, the book was slow moving and dull, with confusingly similar names for characters, and too many unnecessary details that didn’t come to a clean or finite conclusion. It was an alright start to the series, and I’m hopeful they can only get better from here.

This was a decent book for a new series.

I liked that there was a gondola that people took from their homes to the small town. That was kind of cool and would be fun, but I also wonder if it would get old fast. Maybe not during nice weather since I am sure the scenery would be fantastic.

The mystery is well thought out because I was quite surprised at the revelation of the killer. It was not someone I had on my radar at all.

I did guess a few things about some of the characters, but I think that was pure luck!

I will be interested to see how the author brings more mysteries to this small town and to the Christie sisters.