A great first book in a new series. A fun cozy mystery that dropped a lot of red herrings. I had it figured out early. A simply mystery imo but hopefully the next one will be harder to solve.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

Ellie Alexander writes a cute cozy about the Secret Bookcase mystery bookstore in a small town whose survival means finding more customers in The Body in the Bookstore. Annie Murray envisions a mystery festival including all the stores in the event. The festival is a great success, but the body of a very unpopular woman from outside the community is discovered on the secret staircase behind the bookcase in the mystery bookstore. Whodunit? Lots of victims of the deceased provide suspects. Read and enjoy. First of a new series.

• The plot was quite engaging and kept me hooked for the most part.
• Every character had a plausible motive, making me suspect almost everyone at some point.
• The vivid descriptions of the mystery festival, painted quite a picture of the events.
• And references to Agatha Christie were a delightful touch!

What could’ve been better : 🤌🏻

• The investigation felt a tad simple. I craved more twists and turns.
• Annie’s criminology background—could’ve been put to better use.
• Character details of the actual culprit were a bit lacking, and seemed somewhat open-ended.
Maybe it was a teaser for the second part? Guess I’ll find out when I read it.

A great start to a new series! Wonderful characters in an incredible setting. This book will keep you guessing until the end.

The Body in the Bookstore is the 1st Secret Bookcase shopfront cozy by Ellie Alexander. Released concurrently with the second book in the series on 19th June 2024 by Storm publishing, it's 274 pages and is 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. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The second book in the series is also currently available on KU. A third series book is due out from the same publisher at the end of Sept. 2024.
This is a well written light cozy with a MC who runs a bookshop in a small tourist town destination. The background is well interwoven in the book, and it works as a standalone. When an acquaintance from her past winds up dead in her bookshop, Annie tries to solve the crime to save the bookshop and clear her name. It was an interesting choice to release the first two books simultaneously, but it would make a good binge/buddy read for that reason, and given the timing of the third book, it looks like the author/publisher might be on a semi-annual publishing schedule, which is nice.

The author is prolific and quite experienced, the plotting is fairly tight and it doesn't drag. The book is very clean, with only a sprinkling of light cursing and nothing more objectionable in the book than off-page murder, and the requisite threatened violence in the denouement and solution. Definitely safe for reading at work or on the bus.

Four stars, a fun light cozy mystery. The series will be a hit with fans of "Jessica Fletcher", Cleo Coyle, and Jenn McKinlay and other small town storefront cozies.

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

Gratitude to the author and NetGalley for the advanced review copy e-book.
A cosy mystery, compelling read. I enjoyed the context of a mystery within a mystery festival at a mystery bookstore; the meta setup very Agatha Christie like. I wish there had been closure to both mysteries by the end of the book, not just the titular body in the bookshop.
A good summer read.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

I must say that to date Ellie Alexander and her storytelling have never failed me. This first book, Body in the Bookstore, in her new series – A Secret Bookcase Mystery series – does not disappoint. Then again, I think back on all the books I have read by this author (specifically the Sloan Krause series) and I realize I have always been totally engaged in the books I read and most often, had difficulty until the end figuring out ‘whodunit’. Which I must admit is the way that I like my cozy mystery reads :)

This reader was lead through a wonderfully executed introduction to the residents of Redwood Grove and especially our amateur sleuth, Annie Murray. The town of Redwood Grove is picturesque. Who wouldn’t want to live one hour away from the Pacific Ocean and a couple hours away from a ski hill? I did ponder about the word “amateur” when referring to Annie as she has a degree in criminology. Unfortunately, due to Annie’s best friend being murdered just before their college graduation, Annie’s criminology degree and training are going unused. As we quickly learn, Annie feels a massive amount of guilt over Scarlet’s death. Scarlet was murdered while following up on a lead for their final criminology project which was to examine an unsolved murder. The class was tasked with reviewing the crime scene, suspects, and case notes and extrapolating any new insight. Scarlet and Annie went all in… and it seems got too close to finding out who the murderer was.

Scarlet’s murder haunts Annie to this day as told by the musings of Annie early on in the book:

“…Scarlet’s life had been cut short. The guilt of her unsolved murder clung to me like a persistent shadow. Until I tracked down Scarlet’s killer and ensured they were behind bars for good, I knew that shadow would never dissipate.”

Annie has been working at the Secret Bookcase as a bookseller and event coordinator for eight years, since graduation. The bookstore needs more sales if it is to stay afloat. Annie comes up with the idea of a mystery-themed book festival for the town. A win for everyone. In fact, the event is going along better than anyone’s wildest dreams…until one of Annie’s old college acquaintance (Kayla Minter) is found dead within the shelves of the bookstore! Further involving the past, her past criminology professor, Dr. Caldwell, is the police detective involved with solving the murder of Kayla.

Annie is asked by Dr. Caldwell to keep her eyes and ears open as people are more likely to talk to her than anyone in law enforcement. Annie does that and more. She wants to figure out who killed Kayla and why. As Annie runs through the potential list of suspects, we see her come out of her shell more. By the end of the story, Annie seems more self assured and willing to pursue who killed Scarlet. Time will tell how this part of Annie’s story plays out, though if I was a betting woman, I would say that this will be a recurring theme and part of the plots for all future books in this series. Hopefully Dr. Caldwell will also be a part of this story arc as well.

I loved the name of some of the town’s establishments -> Cryptic Coffee – the local coffee house. Or

Stag Head (owned by Liam Donovan) – a bar in town, which hosts historical trivia nights. And lest we forget – Artifacts -> a clothing boutique.

I got a chuckle out of Annie’s bestie – Pri (full name Priya Kapoor) who works at Cryptic Coffee. Pri has a crush on one customer and she only knows him as “Double Americano with cold foam”. Can’t wait for future books in this series so we get more information on this particular customer!

I found Body in the Bookstore a wonderful addition to the long list of books written by Ellie Alexander. I did not figure out completely ‘whodunit’ until the end. The character development was well told and the townspeople are interesting. It was a read which drew me in and would not let me go until I had read the last page! I cannot wait (and luckily I don’t have to as both books were released together 🙂 ) to start the second book in the series A Murder at the Movies.

This was an extremely fun story. The owners of the bookstore sponsor a weekend event to promote their bookstore getting the whole town to participate in different events to bring more business to everyone. When they find the body in the bookstore they have to find a killer before something else happens. I would recommend this book to everyone.

As a fan of Ellie Alexander's Bakeshop series, I was super excited to start this one. The Body in the Bookstore met my expectations for a cozy mystery worth sinking into. Alexander does such a great job of creating a setting that feels like a place to visit. Annie and the other characters are people I am excited to get to know. I look forward to the next installment of this series.

I struggled to get into this book. I eventually found the characters, the setting, and the mystery festival to be a compelling backdrop to the murder mystery. I also thought the list of suspects believable and compelling. But I kept expecting more and dealing with disappointment. I really thought the low stakes climax, in which it didn’t matter what Annie discovered at all, was a red herring and we’d find out that someone else did it and they had the wrong person and murderer chases her down just when she realizes they were wrong and… and… but no. Plus a few things that seemed to be set ups for later didn’t end up going anywhere. I also found the back and forth between Annie and the potential love interest to be juvenile and honestly not cute. More like a “he’s yanking on your pigtails because he likes you” situation, which was ick.
The writing was also really clunky and felt like it was written for a teenage audience.
So, three stars for the concept. Two stars deducted for execution.

I’ve never read a book by this author before but I absolutely loved it! Thank you so much for the ARC! I loved this story, it was extremely well written. Will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author!

This was a cute mystery. The author did a great job making everyone look suspicious and I was literally questioning everyone. Once the killer was announced I feel like I was waiting for more twists and more details. I felt like it was too easy. I enjoyed all the characters though and I definitely want to continue the series

This is the first book in a new series by Ellie Alexander. This new series is very different from her other series. It took a few pages to get used to this book, and it grows on you as you continue to read it. Annie Murray is a great character well written she takes the lead and makes the bookstore amazing so Hal shouldn't need to close down. She put the bookstore on the map and enlightens everyone to want to come to her Festival. At the end leaves you hanging so you want to read the next book to find out the mystery!!! Thank You Net galley for this ARC book.

I have found it difficult to review this book. On the one hand I love the characters and the story line. I think the characters draw you in and as it is now a series they become familiar and you look forward to reading about them and seeing them develop. It is right in the cosy murder genre. On the other hand I don't like the style of writing. So where does that leave me. I shall continue to read them for the characters of whom I am now fond and try and move past my dislike of the style.

This was the wrong choice for me, sadly. I did not like the writing style, I found it too simplistic and formulaic. A DNF.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of the book.

In general I'm a fan of mystery thrillers. This has been an exception. I wasn't really interested in anything that was happening in this book nor was I invested in the characters. The language is too simple, sometimes that works wonderfully but here it was painfully dull.

The main character reminisces about her dead friend after every few pages and it was really annoying when authors keep doing this but there's no mystery interesting enough. It just didn't work for me when I really wished it would.

Given the premises I thought this was going to be one of the best reads of this year but I'm utterly disappointed.

Thank you Netgalley and storm publishing for ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I absolutely love Ellie Alexander! Her cozy mysteries are some of my favorites! I adored her series revolving around the brewery and I loved her Bakeshop mysteries. If Ellie writes it it’s a 100% chance I will read it! New series involving a bookstore I’m sold! Loved it!

I loved this book! Great start to a new series. I enjoyed the characters and the setting and can’t wait to read more in this world. I really loved that the main character had a background in criminology and worked in tandem with the police.

I really enjoyed this first book in a new series. As always, the author has introduced us to a quirky little town full of interesting characters. I will admit though, that I did find Annie, the protagonist, a little off putting. I'm hoping she will grow on me as I read more in the series. The mystery itself was quick paced and fun to delve into and I'll certainly look forward to more in this series.

Ellie Alexander is quickly becoming a new favorite when it comes to cozy mysteries. I love books taking places in or near bookstores and this was no exception. Ellie Alexander writes with wit and humor and at the same time, great empathy. I loved the characters and the storyline, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.