An aspiring suspense novelist lands in the middle of a real crime, in the first in a captivating new series by the author of the Undercover Dish Mysteries.
 
Lena London’s literary dreams are coming true—as long as she can avoid any real-life villains…
 
Camilla Graham’s bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla’s new assistant, she can’t believe her luck. Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she’ll get to live rent-free in Camilla’s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.

But Lena’s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without—a dead body, found on her new boss’s lakefront property.

Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla’s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist’s mysterious estate—before the killer writes them both out of the story for good…

Genre: Cozy Mystery
My Rating: ***** (5 stars)

This cozy mystery is dedicated to Mary Stewart, and that should tell you something! A fan of gothic romantic suspense, the author has done a great job of incorporating the common elements of that genre into a cozy mystery.

I’ve always loved Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, and similar authors, so I was very excited to hear about this cozy. I was not disappointed. There’s the young heroine, living in an unfamiliar house, the “is he good or is he bad” guy, and the “he must be good but there’s something we don’t like about him” guy, and lots of other suspicious characters for us to distrust. All of these elements, combined with a modern mystery and a likable amateur sleuth, created a story I didn’t want to put down.

This one also wrapped up a little differently than most cozies – the reader is left with a pretty good idea of what the characters will be doing at the beginning of the next book. I can’t wait for it! 🙂