Publishable By Death: A Cozy Mystery Adventure (St. Marin's Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

I like a cosy mystery but this is just naff, American 'feel good' nonsense. Author badly needs to learn 'show, don't tell'. So much extraneous crap is included that doesn't advance the plot in any way, but is only there to show how wonderful our lead character and her friends are.None of the characters have their own 'voice'. They're all so bland and uninteresting, while being perfect little do-gooders too. The sad thing is, the backdrop of the murders is an interesting story, but it lost out to dog walks, cheesy romance and paragraphs about the author's favourite books.I got this book for free. Very glad I didn't pay anything for it.

The story of ‘Publishable by Death’ takes place in the very recent past in a small town in Maryland with all the obligatory attributes of ‘a ‘cozy’ background of new inhabitant, bookshop, female amateur sleuth, friendly neighbours, local police one step behind the amateur, cat, dog, food etc. etc. It is introduced as a sweet story with nothing brutally dramatic, no profanities or deviance but lots of secrets and a hint of romance – and of course there is a murder mystery to solve.As a self-confessed ‘cozy’ novel it is expected it will be a ridiculous romp and ‘Publishable by Death’ should be a pleasurable, relaxing, easy read. It isn’t. Author ACF Bookens has a fixation with race and America’s shameful history and she describes her characters by the colour of their skin. Maybe this can be acceptable elsewhere – but surely not in a ‘cozy’. Also it may be inevitable that the plot of a ‘cozy’ should be interwoven with sub-plots – but there are too many irrelevant matters such as dog walks and mealtimes dictating narrative flow.‘Publishable by Death’ is described as the first in a series, and one redeeming feature is that the book does not overtly prepare with cliff-hangers. However as a stand-alone it is only average – hence 3-star rating.

I like a cosy mystery, but this is way too saccharine - full of half drawn cardboard cut out people who all cook divinely, instantly "connect" with our heroine, and seem able to conjure up the solution to any problem with just a couple of phone calls.There's no suspense, no character development, hardly any sense of place, and very little actual mystery. The murders seem after-thoughts to the main narrative that goes on for pages about how the heroine launches her book store to great success in just 3 weeks (to the point that she's able to hire an assistant manager!) with a number of very unlikely co-incidences. Complete with the obligatory "help" who makes the best baked goods and coffee in the state.The murder motive is completely unbelievable, as is the sleuthing style of the main characters. Just a lot of wandering about and jumping to conclusions. And as for the half-baked romance... oh dear.I won't be bothering with No 2.

Opening a new bookshop is hard. Harder still when you find the dead body of an unliked reporter in your storeroom on the first day. A good mystery packed with history.

I find this book offensive in the extreme. What is with the obsession about the characters skincolour. It is totally unnecessary, adds nothing to the characterisation and makes me squirm every time a new character appears. Never a kind florist with green fingers - no we are told what colour she is. There is no integrity about this writer. I am discarding this book and will not buy another one.

This is just a badly done version of many, many other books. Do writers keep copying other's ideas? It certainly seems to. I have read the exact same story line about 10 times; girl moves to new town. Many deaths follow. She, (with no training) solves a series of murders before the police. She hampers the police and nearly gets killed - but she solves the case. This story is set in a book store, another I read was a cafe, another was a hotel, another...

I really enjoyed this book. We start from setting up a book shop to getting to know the inhabitants of the town and how they all start to become familiar to the reader. It’s more than just a cosy read as it deals with social history to. I am looking forward to rest of this series.

I had not read any of this author’s books before this so didn’t know what to expect. However, I wasn’t disappointed. The story was good and, as I am not American, I also learned something about the Green Book and the shameful past of America’s Deep South, which is a good thing. All too often things are glossed over but the shocking thing is that it was not that long ago. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.