I do love a good murder mystery, but sometimes something light and cosy is good for the soul. When I read the blurb for Murder at the Bookstore by Sue Minix it felt like that kind of novel – quaint, a little wacky, and a decent mystery out of it. While it didn’t meet my expectations, there were parts that I liked (as well as a few I really didn’t). Let’s get into it, shall we?

Meet Jen Dawson, mystery writer, coffee lover, and…amateur detective? Crime writer Jen returns to her small hometown with a bestselling book behind her and a bad case of writer’s block. Finding sanctuary in the local bookstore, with an endless supply of coffee, Jen waits impatiently for inspiration to strike. But when the owner of the bookstore dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances, Jen has a real-life murder to solve. The stakes are suddenly higher when evidence places Jen at the scene of the crime and the reading of the will names her as the new owner of the bookstore. Can she crack the case and clear her name, before the killer strikes again?

The premise is good, with small-town intrigue and gossip like a high school locker room, and the plot aspects make for good tension and reasoning. An author with second book brain fog, a regular at the bookstore who befriends the owner, then finds herself the new owner after the reading of the will, and a conspiracy surrounding the crime that seems to be overlooked. These points, lined up well with good character interactions and plot developments in the form of clues, red herrings, and distractions to throw them off guard, could have made for an excellent mystery.

Unfortunately, I felt it fell flat in the delivery. While I appreciate the mystery book in progress has a lot of hype surrounding it in the novel, the outline of writing the draft is making things a little too easy to tell with the real mystery. Not only that, but the intentions and clues were pretty easy to draw out from the beginning, and for the sake of the book’s length the main character is prolonging this very amateur detective sleuthing – of which is highly inappropriate, poorly done, and missing very obvious clues and give aways – to make the book last 300 pages. For me, her personality came across very entitled and almost “It Girl”esque, somehow getting away with so much and yet not suffering any consequences. I don’t want to hate on Murder at the Bookstore or this series too much, but the perspective doesn’t seen to fit the character’s age, and it makes the whole novel feel a little off. Oh, and the murder doesn’t happen at the bookstore, so the title is a bit of clickbait.

I want to see how it progresses though, so I will be giving the second book, The Murderous Type, a read. Hopefully, there is a change to the character development and interactions that feels less childish for someone in their late twenties. I say this as someone in their mid-twenties, by the way. I can see the potential this series has, but there is a lot of development and grounded required. Crossing my fingers that when I write up my review on it I have good things to say about it.