Category Archives: Cozy Mystery

Class Reunions Can Be Murder by Susan Santangelo

I’ve read some fabulous cozy mysteries. And I’ve read some pretty terrible ones. Class Reunions Can Be Murder definitely belongs in the latter category. Supposedly the characters are in their late 50s, but they act like they are in their 20s. They are kind of insufferable, immature, and never got over things from high school. But lest you forget that they are not in their 20s, the author continually makes references to their age and aging. The main character is extremely annoying. She’s just plain unlikable. The story is both predictable and ridiculous. The book is in bad need of an editor. There are so many editing errors. The author does not seem to know what a scene change symbol is for. They are inserted randomly right in the middle of scenes. Generally they are put in places where the main character begins to think about something else or do whatever she said she was going to do. But the scene is still the same so the symbols just ended up being irritating. The whole book was about a 40-year reunion being planned, but the author doesn’t really give any time to the actual reunion activities. The book would’ve been way better if she did (though she included lots of recipes, including how the food was made then and how it’s made now, and reunion ideas in the back which was basically useless fluff). As they are planning the reunion they make a decision to include significant others in the pre-union mixer, but then suddenly significant others aren’t allowed and this becomes a whole scene with the main character’s (equally annoying) husband because he can’t go. So she says he can walk through but he doesn’t want to actually do that, he just wanted to be invited and then later it turns out he did walk through the mixer briefly. Several of the women spent the night in their old school (which is now an active construction zone), but it was literally show up, go to bed. Why in the world would you have a slumber party which only involved sleeping in a different location? Maybe she thought that would show that these women are SO OLD that they couldn’t stay up late which, if they were real people in their late 50s, they absolutely would have. The reunion itself is barely mentioned at all. While the book had its moments that weren’t horrible, overall this is just a poorly written, not very entertaining book. Definitely one to skip.

2 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2022: 96
Pages Read in 2022: 33,834
Graphic Novels: 3

Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott

While slow to get started, Murder by the Book is full of unexpected twists and turns I mostly did not see coming. By the middle I was sucked in and had no idea where it was going to go. The wrap up was a bit confusing just because so many characters were involved, but the explanation ultimately made sense and while highly unlikely, it was still totally plausible. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries, especially ones centered around books.

4 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2021: 23
Pages Read in 2021: 6298