When author Derek Alton comes to Ashton Corners, he ends up dead in Lizzie's house after being shot through the window. As Lizzie begins to conduct her own investigation (besides the one her boyfriend and chief of police Mark Dreyfus is conducting), she discovers that plenty of women in the town knew him in the past. Which one wanted him dead? After another shot is fired into her home, Mark has a police officer tailing her at all times. This is a fun installment in the series, set near Christmas time, but which can be enjoyed at any time throughout the year. It has good plotting and plenty of room to keep the reader guessing the killer's identity. Each chapter is prefaced with a quote from another mystery novel (although one is from a classic piece of literature instead). As a mystery book group figures into the plot, a reading list appears at the end of the novel arranged by book group member. ( )

Read and Buried is the second book in the An Ashton Corners Book Club series. I really am enjoying this series. The author tells a wonderful story and it reads at a nice even pace. The cast of characters run from around 17 to 70 and are all interesting in their own way.

It is a couple weeks before Christmas in Ashton Corners and everyone is busy getting ready to celebrate the holidays. Lizzie Turner has stopped by the Book Bin to check out the latest mysteries. Jensy, the owner, introduces her to author Derek Alton and suggests that maybe Alton could be a guest at the next meeting of Lizzie's book club. Alton then stops by Lizzie's home to learn more about the members of the club. Just as they are start a shot rings out and Alton is killed.

A couple days later another shot is fired into Lizzie house, narrowly missing her while fixing her breakfast. Now, Lizzie the book club and the police are thinking that maybe she was the intended victim.

It is soon learned that Alton had ties to Ashton Corners and now Lizzie and the book club will discreetly be looking for the murderer before they strike again.

A wonderful cozy and am looking forward to the next book. ( )

This, the second book in a new series, was not quite as strong as I'd hoped it would be. I enjoyed it, and I'll read the next one, but there were some things I took issue with in the story line, well, mainly one thing. The romantic interest to our main character, Lizzie, gets his back up over a misunderstanding at the beginning of the book and spends the first half of the book snubbing her. Then, all of the sudden, everything is totally back to normal - no explanation, no 'clearing the air' between characters - nothing. The exact same thing happens between Lizzie and the deputy investigating the crime - first half of the book, she's nasty, making sneering comments to Lizzie and acting like an ass. Suddenly, she's going jogging with Lizzie and inviting her to parties. No explanation, no air-clearing, nothing. Poor writing (or editing), imo.

In spite of that, this was a good book and I did enjoy it - the mystery was interesting enough, with lots of suspects (although I found it easy to guess who the murderer was) and the characters are likeable. Ashton Corners sounds like a great little town and I look forward to reading about more mayhem and murder taking place there - but I also look forward to more consistent story-telling. ( )

Read and Buried is the second book in the An Ashton Corners Book Club series. I really am enjoying this series. The author tells a wonderful story and it reads at a nice even pace. The cast of characters run from around 17 to 70 and are all interesting in their own way.

It is a couple weeks before Christmas in Ashton Corners and everyone is busy getting ready to celebrate the holidays. Lizzie Turner has stopped by the Book Bin to check out the latest mysteries. Jensy, the owner, introduces her to author Derek Alton and suggests that maybe Alton could be a guest at the next meeting of Lizzie's book club. Alton then stops by Lizzie's home to learn more about the members of the club. Just as they are start a shot rings out and Alton is killed.

A couple days later another shot is fired into Lizzie house, narrowly missing her while fixing her breakfast. Now, Lizzie the book club and the police are thinking that maybe she was the intended victim.

It is soon learned that Alton had ties to Ashton Corners and now Lizzie and the book club will discreetly be looking for the murderer before they strike again.

A wonderful cozy and am looking forward to the next book. ( )

First Line: "Lizzie Turner, you'd like a signed copy of Derek Alton's award-winning book, wouldn't you?"


Lizzie Turner makes a trip to her local bookstore, and before she knows what's hit her, she's agreed that one-hit wonder author Derek Alton will appear at the next Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society meeting. Under the guise of learning more about the book club's members, Alton proceeds to make moves on Lizzie-- which she most definitely does not appreciate. But what she really doesn't appreciate is when Alton is murdered in her own home and she's the number one suspect. Lizzie's beau (and the local police chief) Mark Dreyfus not only has to go where the circumstantial evidence is leading him, he's not thrilled about the dead man putting the moves on his girlfriend. This is one case that the Ashton Corners book club has to solve... fast!

This second book in the Ashton Corners series is a light, fun read, and sure to please cozy mystery readers. Due to the events in the first book, A Killer Read, the characters are evolving, and I'm still enjoying the information Chase shares about Lizzie's job as a literacy specialist for the local school board. Lizzie has managed to get a young teenage girl interested in reading by starting her out on Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries. As this book club group of sleuths begin investigating, I got several chuckles from young Andie applying what she's learned from Stephanie to the case they're all trying to solve. Another feature that I enjoy is at the very end: a list of recommended books by each member of the book club. Since this is a mystery readers' book club, it's easy to gather several good titles to read in those last two pages alone. If you're like me and have read many of the recommendations, it's easy to use the list to see which member's reading tastes are most like your own.

Probably due to all the crime fiction I read, I'm becoming rather adept at identifying the killers in books rather quickly. I did so in this case, but I wasn't bothered by it at all. As in most books, it's not so much who did it as why. (And I have to admit that I'm not nearly as good at guessing the Eternal Why!)

Read and Buried is light, fun, and quick to read. I know I'm not the only one looking forward to book number three! ( )