I picked this because I saw it on a bargain e-book list and I really just love stories with lighthouses. Also, because I wanted something short after reading It. I was surprised to find quite a fun cozy mystery. I love the small seaside town setting and the townspeople but also like that our sleuth is a newer resident to add a different perspective. I have already looked for book 2 to continue this series. ( )

Libby Forest moves from London after her husband's death to the small seaside village of Exham. While walking her neighbor's dog on the beach, she discovers the body of woman who she later learns had been a village resident 20 years ago. The police decide that it was an accidental drowning but Libby isn't so sure.

It was any okay mystery but it seem to just follow the normal pattern - find body, want to know more, get involved when you shouldn't. It didn't have any punch, no characters that really stood out. ( )

I have been reading more and more cozy and historical mysteries of late, so I am always on the lookout for a new series to love. I believe I have found both an excellent author and series. I am really not a fan of those female sleuths who are just Nosey-Nellies. The ones that are in-you-face and expect anybody and everybody to answer their much too personal questions, while thumbing their noses at the inept police at the same time. I was so very happy to see this book didn’t follow that format. The writing is excellent, the mystery is well-plotted and excellently paced, and the characters are well-developed and very likable. I will definitely be reading more books in this series.

After the death of her misanthropic husband (who she does not mourn), Libby Forest decides to leave London and move to the small Somerset village of Exham On Sea. In Exham she can have a job, write her cookbook, open a patisserie, and all of those many other things she wasn’t allowed to do while her husband, Trevor was alive. She’s loving her small cottage, her wonderfully re-done cook’s kitchen, and the new friends she has made in the village. All is right with her world – until she takes her neighbor’s dog for a walk on the beach and discovers a body …

The victim is a former villager who had prospered in America. Nobody had seen her in over twenty years – why was she back now? Why did no one know she was here? When Detective Sergeant Joe Ramshore immediately decides it was an accident, Libby just can’t believe it. Something just isn’t right about all of it. The murder is the talk of the village and as Libby learns more about the woman who died, she wants to know even more. As she learns more, she’s convinced it was murder and begins to investigate even more. Then, there is a second death and again, Ramshore decides it was an accident. Given the circumstances, Libby is sure it wasn’t.

During the investigation, we meet a lovely cast of characters. There is the handsome, mysterious Max Ramshore – estranged father of Detective Sergeant Ramshore. There is Fuzzy, the irascible marmalade cat who delights in NOT showing Libby any affection. Bear is a huge, lovable, usually good-natured Carpathian Sheepdog you’ll want to adopt. Of course, there is Frank the baker (and Libby’s boss), and Mandy the teenage Goth waitress at the bakery, and many others in the town. They are a delightful bunch and you’ll enjoy meeting them all.

It was fun watching Libby unraveling the clues and solving a murder that had roots twenty years in the past. You can even feel a bit of sympathy for the perpetrator – at least for the first murder – and we are left to just assume that the same person committed both murders. I will definitely be reading other books in this series. ( )

cosy-mystery, England, family-dynamics, friendship, twisty, abusive-spouse, murder, law-enforcement, small-business, small-town****

I liked it. More of a novella length which made the task of fitting everything in quite a task for the author. She finds a body and the detective brushes her off when she suggests murder. Then the Medical Examiner weighs in. Not deathless prose but a nice cozy to keep me company while doing household tasks.
Jennifer M. Dixon seemed to be an interested narrator but with allergies making her voice a bit nasal and my midwestern self needed to listen at 1.2 speed (not a complaint). ( )

This is a pretty good mystery, as far as the plot goes.

Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the setting really popped for me. They had a lot of promise! but just did not end up vivid- they were all more grayed out.

Libby, in particular, didn't seem to have any center. Part of that was, I think, intentional; her life is undergoing a lot of serious shifts- but she tended to drift through her days, and the various aspects of her life simply did not make sense to me. She was a cipher, and that's usually not a good thing in a protagonist.

And Max, her love interest, is also a cipher, but one that seems to have infinite resources for plot advancement when he bothers to use them.

Another quibble: what small-town bakery has any need or money to hire a full-time recipe developer???

It's not a bad book, and was an entertaining read- it just doesn
't make much sense if you think about ut it. ( )