Death By Coffee (Bookstore Cafe Mystery 1) By Alex Erickson [Book Review]

I bought a paperback copy at Barnes & Noble.

Summary:

When Krissy Hancock and her best friend Vicki decide to open a bookstore café in their new town of Pine Hills, they decide to call it “Death by Coffee,” after Krissy’s father’s most famous mystery novel. Little do they know how well the name fits…

On their very first day of business, Brendon Lawyer huffily takes his coffee…to the grave. It seems he had a severe allergy to peanuts…but how could there have been nuts in his coffee? And who stole his emergency allergy medication?

Fortunately, Krissy’s love of puzzles and mysteries leads her not only to Officer Paul Dalton, but also to many of her new neighbors, who aren’t terribly upset that the book is closed on Brendon. But one of them is a killer, and Krissy needs to read between the lies if she wants to save her new store—and live to see how this story ends…

My Review:

I like the book cover. It’s simple and showcases the bookstore, coffee, and the cat, Trouble. It’s nothing too special, but it’s nice to look at anyway.

I love cozy mysteries and I enjoy the ones with food, books, and cats. This has all three so I wanted to give it a try.

Krissy and her friend open their own cafe bookstore called Death By Coffee. Krissy isn’t a fan of the name, but her friend insisted. Unfortunately, on their first open day, a customer comes in, orders a coffee, and then shortly dies. Krissy, for a while, believes she accidentally killed him, and is determined to figure out what happened to him.

This one isn’t too much different from your average cozy. A non-detective sticks her nose into everyone’s business and tries to solve the supposed murder. While the plot isn’t particularly different from what I’ve read before, it still wasn’t bad.

Krissy makes a fun protagonist. I enjoy her voice and tone as she tells the story. Her friend Vicki, Officer Paul, and her father are all great supporting characters as well. Even the witnesses and suspects were great. Each one had a unique voice and personality. The characters, overall, were well done.

Death By Coffee is an easy read and flows well. The pacing was great and the mystery itself was easy to follow along. The mystery was told in a way that I was able to try to figure it out myself. I was right and then changed my mind and was wrong, and then ended up being right away. So it made me second guess myself and really think to figure it out. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but it wasn’t difficult to do so.

Death By Coffee was a fun read. It wasn’t much different than any other cozy mystery I’d read, but I still enjoyed it all the same. The characters and setting was fun and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.

Death By Coffee (Bookstore Cafe Mystery 1) by Alex Erickson gets…
4 out of 5 cups

Buy the book:

Amazon

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