Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!
I am happy to share my thoughts about Murder Marks the Page today!
Murder Marks the Page (A Tomes & Tea Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – New York
Publisher : Kensington Cozies (March 26, 2024)
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 1496747038
ISBN-13 : 978-1496747037
Kindle ASIN : B0C9W41D6H
The first in a new series spun off from the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries, Daisy’s daughter Jazzi Swanson has opened her own book and tea shop, providing a variety of literature and flavored beverages for a rural New York community. But Jazzi has not only inherited her mother’s gift for brewing tasty drinks—she also has a nose for sniffing out murder.
New York State’s Belltower Landing is a lakeside resort town where tourists spend their summer days boating, floating, and paddle-boarding on the water. It’s also the perfect place to cuddle up with a good book and enjoy a cup of tea, courtesy of Tomes & Tea. Owned and operated by Jazzi and her best friend Dawn Fernsby, the book bar is beloved by vacationers and locals alike, but browsers grabbing brews in the off season aren’t enough to help them make ends meet.
Between brainstorming social media publicity ideas for the shop and fending off flirtatious men she has no interest in or time for, Jazzi befriends a woman named Brie who has recently made contact with her biological father. As an adopted child herself, Jazzi is more than happy to give Brie emotional support, especially as her wealthy father’s wife and children see her as a threat.
But Brie is also looking to start a family of her own. Unfortunately, all the potential princes she’s met through a dating app turn out to be frogs. Then, when Brie is found murdered, Jazzi finds herself playing detective. With a list of suspects ranging from jealous half-siblings to less-than-suitable suitors, Jazzi may need to consult some of her shop’s bestselling mysteries to help her uncover a killer . . .
Dollycas’s Thoughts
In this spinoff of the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery series, we find Jazzie has completed college and has opened a book and tea shop, Tomes & Tea with her best friend Dawn Fernsby in Belltower Landing, New York. Tourists flock to the town and spend summers there but Jazzi and Dawn need to figure out how to keep their shop profitable year-round. Their friend, Delaney has a friend, Brie, who has just made contact with her biological father but she has a lot of questions. Knowing Jazzi and Dawn were both adopted she asks them to talk to Brie. Jazzi quickly becomes friends with Brie and agrees to help her in any way she can.
Brie mainly looked for her birth father because she was ready to settle down and start a family and wanted to know her history. She had been using a dating app and has gone on several dates but she has discarded them all. And while her dad is interested in having her in his life, his wife and their children have very different feelings.
When Brie is killed, Jazzi feels the need to investigate. The men Brie had dated and her half-siblings are her main suspects. She had witnessed her mother getting involved in several murder cases and now she has one of her own to solve. Will Jazzi find the killer? Will she live to tell the tale?
Jazzi and Dawn make a good team and they have taken a huge chance in opening up Tomes & Tea. They met in college in a group for people who had been adopted. The group helped them navigate their feelings about their birth parents and answered other questions they had about searching for them. Jazzi has found her birth mom and they have a relationship. Jazzi was also very close to her adoptive mom. It now seems like those relationships are strained but readers aren’t given any details. We know she is very independent and after suffering a bad breakup she has no interest in dating. As this is the first book in this series, and some years have passed from where the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery series left off we need to give the author time to develop this new Jazzi, Dawn, and the other core characters in this series. There is a lot of potential there.
The book and tea shop is a wonderful theme for a cozy mystery series. I loved the brainstorming about bringing in more business and building a year-round customer base. Jazzi and Dawn’s friends and book club members came up with great ideas. The events they held were fun and created a buzz about the shop.
The mystery was well-plotted and an interesting twist gave Jazzi the perfect reason to get involved but she is a reluctant sleuth. She doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Detective Milford urges her to stay out of his case, but she thinks he needs help. She didn’t think he was questioning any of her top suspects and he was working on several other cases. She has met a lot of people opening her business and she does have some admirable observation skills. But while those skills helped her put some important pieces of the puzzle together, they also got her into trouble. I really enjoyed the showdown and that Jazzie contacted her mother afterward and shared harrowing the experience.
It is always fun when a cozy mystery protagonist has pets. Early in the story, Jazzi finds a kitten behind the shop and a friend finds its sibling and brings it to Jazzi and Dawn. They quickly make themselves right at home – a male named Zander, and a female Freya.
Murder Marks the Spot has given this series a strong start. I enjoy this author’s writing style and I am excited for this series to continue so I can get to know these characters better.
Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent
About the Author
Karen Rose Smith is the author of the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries,
Also written by Karen Rose Smith
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Sounds like a book I will enjoy reading.