When I started reading it, I wasn't aware that it was book 2 in a series, but not having read the first one didn't affect my enjoyment of this engaging new cozy mystery. Full of quirky characters, this is well worth your time, especially as the days grow shorter and you want to nestle indoors with a warm cup of tea (or hot cocoa!) and read!

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley. ( )

The Publisher Says: Don't miss the second installment of this gripping and funny bookish cozy mystery series by Tamara Berry! This case isn't just cold, it's practically frozen shut...

In the aftermath of solving their first murder, bestselling author Tess Harrow and her teenage daughter Gertrude have decided to stay in Winthrop permanently. Now that they've made some updates to their cabin in the woods, they're turning to the family hardware store that Tess inherited and converting it into the town's first independent bookstore. But when renovations unearth bones from a cold case and send them toppling—literally—onto Tess's head, the work comes to a grinding halt. With the whole town convinced that her grandfather was a serial killer, Tess has to call in a fellow horror author for reinforcements. Together, they'll come up with a perfect story to make all the clues fit...and solve a mystery more than thirty years in the making.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Not many writers will 'fess up to their weirdest research methods. Tess Harrow doesn't have a lot of choice...she's tied to a chair in a basement struggling to get free (research!) when the floor above her collapses. That, my friends, is how you open a story!

When Tess, a bestselling thriller writer and mother of a teenaged girl, needs to make a big change in her life, the opportunity to take over her late grandfather's hardware store and cabin in small-town Washington State arises. Teenager in tow, off Tess hares. It's quite clear that she won't be running a hardware store so she does what so many writers say they'd love to do and decides a bookstore is what the town needs! (The town was not consulted, but never mind.)

In the course of renovating the store, a skeleton is uncovered in a...peculiar...place. Then there's another one! All in her dear old grandfather's store! Was her belovèd grandfather a murderer?! Or if not, was he an accessory to murder? Either way, Tess wants to know (let's face it, she's stumbled into one helluva tale) and the local Sheriff doesn't much want to speed his investigation up just for this high-handed Bigfoot author from out of town. There are Procedures. They're there to make a case solid and an answer to the Big Questions of who, what, when, and why (where being known in this case) trustworthy and that's what matters to his law-enforcement officer self.

Tess, coming at this from three angles and none of them inspiring her to patience (store owner, granddaughter, thriller writer), naturally clashes with Slowpoke McPutt-putt. The sparks must fly, mustn't they, to make the needed heat for the series to rise to new heights? Add in the teenager's discomfiting fascination with Sylvie the coroner's job (to the point that she's shadowing the poor thing really, really closely as a school project), and there's a lot of moving parts. That's what makes the read so much fun...the way Author Berry keeps all the balls in the air and manages to cast your attention into the blind alleys she needs for it to be distracted by...well, it's fun to be in the presence of a skilled practitioner at her peak.

The renovations, the bodies, the people who just *happen* to be not quite who they say they are, the motives for the locals to take sides on the uncomfortable rooting about for answers to the Big Questions...all are standard elements handled in deft ways. They aren't surprises. They aren't meant to be, and they're all the more welcome for not being. I think the series will have legs because it's already got a smile of its own. It's presenting your ma'at-sensing organs with truth and justice but they're not as simplistically presented as they can sometimes be in series mysteries. There's thoughtful commentary on the way of the world, there's a damn-near evergreen scented evocation of the way small towns in the piney woods operate, there's the always-fun fish out of water growing into a local institution trope...remember Northern Exposure?...and it's done with panache, if not philosophical depth.

Great for the season's snatch-a-chapter-in-line reading habits because it's already episodic! ( )

On Spine of Death by Tamara Berry is the second book in the By the Book Cozy Mysteries and the first I’ve read of the series, but it was so well written that it wasn’t confusing at all jumping in on the second book.

I read so many cozy mysteries, but this one stood out for me because the main character, Tess, writes thrillers, so while this was a cozy, it also felt a bit more exciting when it came to the mystery part because of Tess not being as naive as some of the other main characters in other cozy series. And I loved that her daughter, Gertrude, is so inquisitive and helps her mom out with the case by volunteering to work with the coroner.

Some cozies I read for the author’s detailed description of the town or a certain hobby, and while Berry does write great descriptions of the town, where she really shines is in her character creation (and the mystery, as stated above). Her characters were so vivid with lots of unique ones. I really enjoyed Tess and Gertie and can’t wait to read more of how they work together to solve cases. And Tess’s older writer friend was a close second for me.

The mystery itself had some interesting suspects and lots of red herrings. I really thought it was one person for most of the book, but enjoyed how it turned out to be someone else.

If you’re looking for a cozy with a bit more of an edge, you need to check out the By the Book series. ( )

sheriff, sheriff's-deputy, situational-humor, FBI, family, family-drama, verbal-humor, murder, murder-investigation, teens, writers, small-town, rural, cold-case, cozy-mystery, Washington-state, inheritance, suspense, romantic*****

Talk about twisty and complicated!
Tess is a recently divorced successful crime fiction writer who has moved to upstate Washington with her laser focused teenaged daughter, Gertrude (Gertie), to take up property inherited from her grandfather. The property includes a rustic cabin and a ramshackle hardware store which she is having renovated and repurposed. After the first assemblage of bones is found in the old hardware store, Gertie manages to get herself sort of hired on by Ms. Sylvie the coroner, and Tess calls upon an author friend who also publishes in Forensic Magazine (Peter). Add in an attraction to Sheriff Boyd, a friendship chief deputy Ivy, an undercover FBI (Nicki the librarian), and you have most of the cast of characters who certainly are. The mystery is very well done and the laughs are funny without becoming a farce. Absolutely loved it!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )