Description (from cover):'Hosting an award-winning novelist is quite a Christmas coup for the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society. But when he's murdered in Lizzie Turner's house, she's got a holiday homicide on her hands...
For their very first guest author event, most of the book club members can't wait to pull out all the stops in Southern hospitality. But for Lizzie, Derek Alton is nothing but trouble--from his massive ego to his smarmy moves. When he's found murdered in her living room, it seems someone decided that this womanizing writer would be better off dead than read.
After suspicion falls of Lizzie's friend, she and her fellow book club members discover that Derek wasn't who he pretended to be. Cracking this case means going up against Lizzie's boyfriend, police chief Mark Dreyfus, and unearthing a novel's worth of nasty secrets. And as they get closer to uncovering Derek's scandalous final manuscript, someone hiding in plain sight is out to write finis to Lizzie's sleuthing for good...'
My thoughts:
Ashton Corners, Alabama is the typical cozy mystery setting. Small town with amazing characters and a knack for being a place where murders seem to occur quite often. I love this series because it incorporates a love of reading and books with a cozy mystery. I simply cannot get enough of this series and the characters and I cannot wait until the next is released. Reading this book was such a pleasure and I hated to see the story end.
There were no lack of suspects and motives and I was kept guessing until the very end. Readers of this blog will know from previous reviews that I love my cozy mysteries to be a little harder to figure out. I like being left guessing until the end and I expect my cozies to read like that. This one did not disappoint this avid cozy mystery readers. Erika Chase has a writing style that draws the reader into the characters and the storyline with ease. I read through this book in one day because I could not put it down.
Lizzie finds herself embroiled in another murder mystery when an award-winning novelist is murdered in her own living room. Derek Alton is quite the sleazy character who likes to hit on women and doesn't take no for an answer. He asked Lizzie out for dinner with the intention of learning more about the Ashton Corners book club, but he had an ulterior motive, to try out his smarmy ways on Lizzie. As Lizzie is less than impressed, she cuts the dinner short and goes home. Derek Alton doesn't seem to get the hint and stops by Lizzie's place to 'talk' some more. While he is there someone shoots and kills him through a window. Lizzie feels personally involved in this murder investigation because it happened in her own living room. She must use her detective skills and the help of the Ashton Corners book club to find the murderer before she becomes the next victim.
This book is a model for how cozy mysteries should be written. There are loveable characters, an engaging plot line, and no lack of suspects and motives that will leave you intrigued until the very last page. Erika Chase is quickly becoming one of my favorite cozy mystery authors and I can't wait to see what she has in store for these characters. A great cozy read with a Christmas setting, which makes reading perfect on a cold and rainy winter day. Highly recommend that you don't skip this one!
Overall Rating: 5
Title: Read and Buried
Author: Erika Chase
Series: Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery #2
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 4, 2012
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
