I love the 'up north' Wisconsin setting. Rain is excited to revive the book club as the library opens up for the season. The first book for the group is fittingly enough, an Agatha Christie novel. Several members are new faces to Lofty Pines, WI. One will wind up dead and one a murderer. Rain and her friend Julia put their heads together and try to recreate the setting of their book club meeting to help them find clues to apprehend the culprit.

Read to Death at the Lakeside Library
By Holly Danvers
Crooked Lane
2023

Review by Cynthia Chow

While her parents burn up frequent flyer miles touring the world, Rain Wilmot is staying in Lofty Pines, Wisconsin and fully taking over her mother’s duties at the town’s Lakeside Library. Rain has also decided to resume their summer Book Club, with the first pick of the season being Agatha Christie’s “Sparkling Cyanide.” The meeting gets a little fractious what with the wine drinking taking precedence along with those who only watched the movie version, but it’s the death of one of the members not long after that has Rain truly alarmed. Worried that her selection of the book may have inspired a murder by poisoning, Rain and her frequent accomplice Julia Reynolds begin investigating those who may have wanted Lily Redlin dead. As it turns out, it may have been a book club member and not Agatha Christie who gave the killer a means for murder, which is why Rain and Julia feel obligated to break into their neighbors home, steal evidence, and possibly obstruct justice. It’s a good thing that Julia’s brother and Rain’s maybe-something Jace Lowe is a police officer, as despite his exasperation with them he does provide them with a few tidbits of authorized information. A temporary closure of the library due to possible poison concerns allows the staff to fully engage as investigators, looking not only into Lily’s death but a connected one from the past. Taking a lead from Agatha Christie, Rain even gathers together the suspects for a Book Club reenactment in the hopes of revealing the culprit. Whether or not this results in a solution using her little grey cells or only places herself as next in line as a victim, it will at least make for a lively next meeting.

This third in the series combines classic mystery tropes, romance, and a lot of suspense for cozy mystery fans. A sudden shift in romantic prospects has Rain reassessing her relationship with Jace, whose frequent visits to the library may be related to more than its proximity to the police station. Rain and Julia have a lot of leeway in their efforts to investigate, as they definitely push the limits of legality in their endeavors. A more somber note that is left open for more exploration is the concern over Rain’s fellow library staff member Marge Duncan, who attributes her moments of forgetfulness to simple old age and not something far more serious. There are an assortment of lively canine companions to keep things upbeat, from Marge’s cocker spaniel to Jace’s gorgeous Siberian husky. Now that she’s more settled in her life Rain might be ready to adopt a pooch herself, making her life an enviable one full of books and constant canine love. This is a very light-hearted cozy mystery sure to please those looking for exuberant characters and a mystery filled with Agatha Christie lore.

An atmospheric cozy mystery that will keep you guessing the motive and whodunit. I enjoyed the characters, the plot, and the setting of the Northwoods.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I'm not sure I've ever stopped reading a book for a reason as possibly nutty as this one. I'm not sure what I'm referring to, myself or the plot.

The setting for this series is great. A cabin library found on a lakeside resort is more than most could ask. Almost anyone could dream that picture up in their minds. The cozy is basically ok. It starts out with a book club, a mystery, and a person murdered in a manner that came up in the book discussion. Fun huh?

Suddenly, someone leaves a note on the library door about the murder and one amateur sleuth talks the other into not showing it to her brother the cop lest he close the library for the summer. This just struck me as nuts. It’s as if the author needed to fit in a clue but didn’t know what to do if the police officers saw it. I stopped reading then and there. Just struck me as ludicrous.

Read to Death at the Lakeside Library
by Holly Danvers
Pub Date 08 Aug 2023
Crooked Lane Books
General Fiction \(Adult\)| Mystery & Thrillers



Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books gave me a copy of Road to Death to review:


Tourism to Lofty Pines, Wisconsin is in full swing as tourists return to the Northwoods. This is the perfect opportunity for Rain Wilmot to revive her mother's summer book club. One of the club's members, Lily Redlin, is found dead in her own home not long after the first meeting.



Together with Julia Reynolds and Jace Lowe, Rain finds that the murder is apparently inspired by Agatha Christie's classic mystery Sparkling Cyanide, which the club recently discussed. More importantly, why would anyone kill Lily?


As Rain dives deeper into the story, the plot becomes more complex. Was Lily murdered to cover up an old classmate's tragic accident years ago? Did Lily really possess a priceless original Laura Ingles Wilder manuscript and someone killed her for it? What about the mysterious letter Lily received just before her death? Was it a hoax?


With a long list of suspects and motives, Rain realizes all the leads point to the book club. She and her friends reenact the club's first meeting in order to flush out the killer, following Agatha Christie's example. Will Rain's plan succeed-or will the librarian's book be returned?

I give Read to Death at Lakeside Library five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Super fun cozy mystery based in the Wisconsin. This is a story set in the summer and tourist season. During a new book club meeting, one of the club's members is found dead in her home with weirdly similar vibes to Agatha Christie's Sparkling Cyanide book.

Rain works with her friends to solve the mystery. This series is always a delight!

A 4.5-star rating rounded up to 5 for Goodreads. I really enjoyed the mystery of this latest installment of one of my favorite cozy series. It was really good and kept me guessing. My main complaint was that Julia drove me a bit nuts at times. She was a little to gung-ho about solving the mystery which ended up putting Rain into some uncomfortable spots with Jace. Julia needs to calm down a bit in the next book. Otherwise, I loved this cozy!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Read To Death At The Lakeside Library (Lakeside Library Mystery, #3) by Holly Danvers. Being a huge Agatha Christie fan, I knew I wanted to read Holly Danvers' latest book since the storyline revolved around one of Christie's novels. When I was approved to receive a copy for free in exchange for my honest review, I was happy.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading Read To Death At The Lakeside Library. It was a super cute and fun read . . . a beach read if you will. The only thing I didn't care for, and it was a minor thing, is when Julia would substitute cute sayings like fiddlesticks instead of the actual curse word.

From the beginning, Holly Danvers gives us lots of clues as to who the murderer was going to be as well as giving the reader a couple of red herrings, but I kept thinking she was doing that to throw us off. For whatever reason, I kept thinking that Marge was somehow going to be the murderer, but I read too much into it and was wrong.

I really enjoyed the characters of Rain and Julia and wanted to be a part of their friend group!! Nick and Jace were really great characters as well. For the most part, all the characters were likable, which is a bit refreshing as I'm getting tired of books that only have unlikable characters.

Five out of five stars is what I gave Read To Death At The Lakeside Library (Lakeside Library Mystery, #3) by Holly Danvers. I can definitely say I will be reading other books in this series and can't wait to see what other mischief Rain and Julia get themselves into.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Now that Rain lives full time on Pine Lake and runs the Lakeside library, she decides to renew the summer book club. The first meeting is a lively affair with many differing opinions of the book of choice. The participants are suspected when one of their attendees is murdered by similar means to the one in the book. Could one of them be a murderer and what possible reason could there be for the killing.

It turns out that the deceased has had some big changes in her life, some good, some bad. Those changes muddy up the motives so that when Rain and BFF Julia start investigating, there is a lot going on. Some of it goes back decades. Some of it is a more recent vintage. And when Jace, Julia”s brother and Rain’s new beau, arrests someone, neither of the ladies is convinced it is the right person.

Here is where a strong story loses some punch for me. Rain is, by far, the least manic of the two when it comes to investigating. Jace is right when he says the two women are dangerous when they join forces. Thanks to Julia, they get into some very dangerous situations. Julia steers close to the Darwin edge but thankfully, things work out in more ways than one. Four purrs and two paws up.

Holly Danvers continues the Lakeside Library mysteries in Read to Death at the Lakeside Library. Lofty Pines, Wisconsin, is a closed in community around Lofty Pine Lake. Rain Wilmot runs the private library for the community; at a book discussion of Agatha Christie's Sparkling Cyanide the group has diverse opinions of the plot. Then one of the participants is found dead--poisoned. Lots of suspects: have fun solving the murder.

It's summer at the Lakeside Library and Rain is holding the first meeting of the book club. But things really heat up when one of the members is found dead.
I liked this mystery because the plot kept me guessing, even though it took a while to get to the end. Rain is a wonderful amateur sleuth who tries to stay out of the way of the police and her hunky boyfriend. Julia, her best friend, is another fun character who always finds herself in deep water during their investigations. I can't wait until the next installment in this series. Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced reader's copy.

Read to Death at Lakeside Library is the third book in the Lakeside Library series and the first I’ve read. It was easy to get swept up in the story without having read the first two. Read to Death brings the reader back to Lofty Pines, a resort town in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, where Rain Wilmot lives and runs a private library. It’s summer and the resort town is hopping. Rain decides to revive her mother’s book club, starting with an Agatha Christie Mystery. When one of the participants dies unexpectedly soon after, Rain wonders if she was killed by someone in the group. It’s an uncomfortable feeling since she knows most of them well. She takes it upon herself to investigate along with her close friend Julia. A romance is growing between Rain and Julia’s brother, Jace who is a local cop. He takes Rain’s input seriously but cautions her against endangering herself by getting involved. The book is well-paced with a good-sized cast of characters. Some are likely to take their place in future books; plenty of others give the reader plenty of suspects to choose from. If you enjoy cozies in an evocative setting, you won’t be sorry you picked up Read to Death at Lakeside Library.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for the opportunity to read this advance copy of Read to Death at the Lakeside Library in exchange for an honest opinion.

I adored this cozy mystery! The group of characters were fantastic, and I loved the beach setting. I enjoyed the plot twists and the mystery. It was well paced and well written!

So, I am a sucker for cozy mysteries, and I loved this one! This is the first from this series I have read, but I will change this because I enjoyed this author's writing. It was witty and original and a hoot!
The two MCs are working together to try to find out who killed a member of their book club. I really love their relationship, where it is like they are working together instead of competing with each other. This series is cute and exciting. I do enjoy that there is a love interest with the officer that is interesting. This is a short enjoyable read! Thank you Netgally and Crooked Lane Books for the extraordinary opportunity to read and review this one!

Read to Death at the Lakeside Library is the third book in the Lakeside Library Mystery series. It was my favorite, so far, in the series. The main character, Rain, runs a lakeside library at her house. She has a best friend (Julia) who lives next door, who helps at the library. The two of them seem to feed off each other and end up getting into mischief. They have another friend, Kim, who is around at times; she’s a lot of fun! Rain and Julia like to investigate mysteries and are good at it. There is a little romance and a couple cute dogs. The book is definitely a good cozy mystery. There are many suspects and clues to follow. The main ladies are both fun and smart. I enjoy reading about life on the lake and hearing about the small-town community. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC. I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I will post this review to my blog, Goodreads, Bookbub, & Amazon accounts.

This latest in the Lakeside Library series features a re-enactment of a mystery scene from Sparkling Cyanide by Dame Agatha Christie. When a member of the Lakeside book club dies in mysterious circumstances, librarian Rain and sidekick Julia suspect foul play. The involve themselves in trying to solve the crime.

There are a lot of characters in this novel, and I had to make a list to keep up with them. Some of the things they did seemed silly to me. Although it is part of a series, I read it as a standalone. It would have helped if I read the previous ones in order though. In addition to the mystery and the hair raising ending, there is a lot of description and romance and other adventures. I wondered if this librarian ever worked at the library! For me, these other sidebars got in the way of the mystery, which was solved rapidly at the end of the book. I would prefer more mystery and less other stuff. It is not a difficult read, maybe a good beach read.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I had not read either of the first two books in this series, but lakeside seemed like a great place to be in our summer heat, and this book tied in to the recent theme of Midwestern mysteries of a few months ago. Rain Wilmot has found Lofty Pines, Wisconsin, and the Lakeside Library the perfect balm to recover from her tragic past, and as summer gets underway, she's ready to move on with her life, including, perhaps, romance. One of the new activities she's excited about is the new book club the library is sponsoring and which she is hosting in her home. No one expects one of the book club attendees to be murdered, and in a manner shockingly similar to the first book the group is reading. Rain and her best friend, Julia, begin their own investigation, despite the warnings of Julia's brother, Jace, a policeman working the case. And despite Rain and Jace'sgrowing attraction to each other. My verdict: meh. Rain and Julia are investigating for no good reason other than curiosity, they contaminate the murder scene by walking around it (potentially jeopardizing any court case, I would think, or at the very least, compromising the investigation and potentially leaving evidence at the scene). When Rain and Jace's relationship heats up, and he says"Don't ever lie to me again. Do you understand?... Can you promise me that?" she does, and then immediately lies to him. I left a note to myself that I wished he dump her when he found out she lied to him after promising not to do that, but it's a romantic mystery, so naturally he doesn't. And she convinces Julia to lie to her brother to keep their investigation and what they think they've discovered to themselves. They uncover a crucial bit of evidence and keep that from the police. There is a weird instance with a boat owner being friendly and leaving them alone to snoop around his boat for no reason (would anyone do that?), but then the boat owner does a 360-degree about face in his behavior for no reason. At first I thought midwesterners were too nice and naive, then I thought they were too weird, and then I decided the author was at fault. The book was mediocre; it's squeaky clean, but everybody seems to punch each other in the arm (Rain and Jace do that, something I can see a 13-year-old boy doing to a girl her likes, but not a grown man), Rain and Julia slap and tap and punch each other, Julia and her husband do this--I started tracking how many times characters do this to each other because it was that common. If I were a drinking game kind of person, this would be a great action to track, but you'd be drunk by the middle of the book. All in all, I found the mystery a little too uninteresting, the relationships a little too juvenile, the writing a little too inconsistent. It's not bad, it's just not good. And not promising enough that I'll read any more in the series.

Another great installment in the Lakeside Library mystery series. I love Rain and Julia's friendship, they will literally do anything for each other. I like how Holly Danvers tied this mystery into a classic from Agatha Christie. Looking forward to the next book to see what happens in Rain's love life.

Rain and Julia once again team up together and drive Jace crazy as they "help" the police in their investigation.

This time the murder happens after a book club meeting at the Lakeside Library. The group of ladies meets on the deck beside the lake to discuss an Agatha Christi mystery. When heated discussion erupts, the meeting ends with some hurt feelings and Rain and Julia are concerned about some of the members. The following morning, they want to visit one of the ladies to try to smooth ruffled feathers, but find her dead.

While at first suicide seems to be the logical reason for her death. Happily Rain and Julia behave perfectly at this point. But when some facts don't add up, Rain and Julia begin to feel that the police won't be able to find the killer without their help and go about their amateur sleuthing without sharing what they find with the police.

I loved the references to the Christie mystery and even stopped reading this to reread it so that I could better understand some of what was going on in this particular book.

I've read the others in this series and none disappoint. I am grateful that the author's biography at the end of the book states, "She lives with her husband..., where she's already plotting her next novel." I will be looking forward to its publication.

*I want to preface this by thanking NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the chance to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!*

NOTE: Due to the star rating not allowing decimals, know that my actual rating is a 2.5/5 stars.

Finding this book, I found the premise to be very promising and I was looking forward to reading a good mystery thriller - especially with it involving a book club and the special appearance of Rex the dog.

I have to be honest, it took me very long to get into the murder mystery and I found myself more invested in Rex than I did the human members of the book club or the victim.

The writing style was short, but sweet. The setting felt familiar and kept my attention. For me, what was lacking was the characters: I couldn't find myself connected with the main characters, their relationships with one another, the twists and turns or even the outcome. I couldn't even find myself caring much for the glimpse of romance. However, in the end it can simply be a thing of me not being the target audience for this novel, and it did have its highlights!

Shoutout to Rex, you're a good dog.