Murder by Page One review

This is the first book in a brand new series called Peach Coast Library by Olivia Matthews who also writes the cozy mystery Sister Lou series. I really enjoyed meeting Marvey and all her friends and library co-workers. What a great setting and fun groups of people. I’ll definitely be watching for when the next book comes out!

My Goodreads review:

Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this start of a new series and the idea of the main character having two strong sets of friends. She had her bestie Jo of course, and their other good friend Spence. What was so cool about Spence was that despite the fact he was super rich, he didn’t flaunt it or act all stuffy about it. He dug in and investigated with his friends like any regular guy who might have had an in with the coroner’s office, and he kept a presence and job at the local paper his family owned. It was great that he had the means it took to get people together for questioning purposes aka dinner party too. Jo was very blessed to have a determined friend like Marvey trying to keep her from going to prison for a murder she didn’t commit. Marvey was someone I could quickly become friends with.

The other group of friends was Marvey’s library co-workers. I really liked all of them, especially the ol’ curmudgeon Floyd who wasn’t really such a crusty guy after all. And Corrinne was such a nice boss which was really refreshing. I read so many books where the boss is a jerk, but Corrinne was genuinely a good person to her employees. I got the feeling that she’d never ask them to do anything she wouldn’t do. They did a good job presenting a united front for their budget increase request as well as helping Marvey with her sleuthing.

I had sort of guessed the killer once the clues fell into place. It was a great showdown with Jo and Marvey working together on it. The detective and his sidekick weren’t painted in too bad of a light. Kind of a good balance where I could picture the conversations between them as not too heavy or light if it was done as a Hallmark mystery movie.

Great setting for a mystery series, and it was interesting to have a New York transplant come into town. I got a kick out of Marvey’s notebook on Southernisms and their translations, lol. I thought the Cobbler Crawl sounded pretty cool and was glad to see Marvey as Spence’s partner in it. Gotta admit, I’d be there for the cobbler not the race part! I’m anxious to see what this fun group gets into in the next book! The key players were definitely people I came to care about and would like to visit with again!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

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