I always love this type of mystery and this one was no exception. Great read. Definitely would recommend.

Yikes! Vicky was looking for a quieter life in Maine but she finds....,murder! This is a pleasant cozy with a good character in Vicky and a sufficiently tricky plot. A good read.

This is an upbeat, charming and cozy read. The characters are amusing and well-round they were so much fun to be around and intriguing as well,

Nice beginning to a cozy mystery series! I really liked the main character, Vicky. The storyline was interesting and the book had a great setting! I'm looking forward to more.

Sadly this is a DNF book as I just couldn't get into this book. I have tried for a few months to get into it and just can’t seem to connect and get interested.

I know other people will give a book a bad/low mark for being a DNF, but as an author myself I know how bad that feels. So I hope my no score is less painful. I’m not going to score this book as I don’t want to give it a bad score - as I don’t feel it deserves one. Nor do I want to give it a high score for the same reason.

Basically, this book was not for me. There is nothing wrong with the writing; I just couldn’t get into it. From other reviews I have read, people have loved this book. To me that proves it’s good… for the right audience.

This does not make it a bad book, and I really want to emphasise this. Despite not liking it and not being able to get into it, I did see potential. I, the reader, and this book just weren’t matched and I refuse to mark it down because of my own faults. :-)

Book received from NetGalley

A cute quick read about a young woman who returns home to open a shop after being a travel writer for many years. She had been living in Great Britain and wanted to come home. However, when she did an unsolved mystery around a classmate's murder has been reopened and she's back in the thick of things. All while trying to find a place to open her British souvenir shop, in a small Maine village. This is one of those mystery books with multiple suspects and more than one person "whodunnit" in the end. I liked it and will definitely want to read more in this series.

This cozy mystery started promisingly, despite not breaking any new ground: middle aged heroine, check; over-bearing mother, check; cute dogs, check; twee hobby, check. It's got some good characters and a nice setting. However, the mystery plot is a bit thin and I'm afraid became quite repetitive. Separately, the book contained long speeches of awkward exposition, including - surprisingly - explaining why the police don't release all their information to the press, how alibis work and why the police shouldn't let suspects escape...! Very little of the dialogue uses contractions, so it had a really stilted feel about it and slowed down any moments of tension. By the end, the identity of the killer is quite a leap; they have no hint of motive until they helpfully explain it all at unnecessary length when preparing to kill their final victim. Without that there was no case, and their means, motive and opportunity was either extremely tenuous or not explained.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I did not finish this book as I did not engage with this story at all.

I like a lot of dialog, but this was all talk and no action.

This is the first debut book in the Country Gift Shop Mystery series by Vivian Conroy. .This is a delightful mystery. The setting is a country gift shop in a coastal community in Maine. Vicky has returned from London to her small coastal Maine village to open a country gift shop and embrace a new life. She soon runs into a murder and her former high school crush becomes prime suspect number one. Vicky is determined to clear his name and her sleuth begins.
I love the small coastal town, the community and friends Vicky has cultivated here. Owning a new business and solving a murder she quickly becomes involved in every aspect of small town life. The sleuth is well crafted and fun, the characters are a delight. All in All this is a fun read! This series has much promise and I cannot wait for the next in series. Cross posted on Amazon

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from NetGalley.

Other reviewers have summarized the plot, so I will not be redundant by repeating the details here.

My overall reaction? Meh. Just an okay story, not a particularly compelling one for me. (Others' mileage will most certainly vary.) The book did not really grab me and not let me go, such that when another book I had requested from my library became available, I put this one down after only a couple of chapters and read the other book, then came back to this one. For me, a compelling book is one that keeps me up past my bedtime. This book did not do that.

I was not convinced by the relationships between the heroine and the men in town who might be candidates for future romance. And the requisite dead body did not appear until more than a third of the way through the book, which made for a very slow start.

Dead to Begin With by Vivian Conroy is the first book in the Country Gift Shop Cozy Mystery series. Vicky has returned to her hometown in Maine with the intention of opening a British themed gift shop. The past quickly comes back to haunt her as the 20 year unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl is once again the talk of the town when Vicky finds a body. The dead man was blackmailing someone in connection with the disappearance. I enjoyed the setting of the small Maine town as well as the characters. Since this was the first book, it had a slow start. The mystery took center stage though. This is a wonderful start to a new cozy mystery series. I look forward to reading the next installment.

I enjoyed this new series. A lot of time is spent setting up the background and cast of characters which might be a negative for some readers, but there was sufficient time spent on the mystery for me.

How successful a British foods and gift shop would be in such an environment is questionable as is the lack of any concrete working relationship and mention of pay for a woman who helps Vicky with her store as well. These issues didn't "push my buttons" as sometimes happens though.

I'm looking forward to the next story.

Mentioning if you like Agatha Raisin, you'll like this book is very misleading (and a mistake in my case since I'm not a fan of the annoying, and not in a fun, good way, Agatha). Vicky is younger, an American (despite spending 10 years in Britain), had and is try to have a totally different career and not man crazy (definitely not to the point where she debases herself like Agatha).

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Vicky Simmons has decided to leave London & move back home to the coast of Maine where she grew up & open a British Country Gift Shop. Upon her return she comes in contact with high school classmates and an old crush, Michael Danning. Michael now runs the local newspaper & has run an article on a local girl who went missing years ago at the age of nineteen. As her boyfriend, Michael had been accused of the crime but the case remained unsolved. Her identical twin, Diane, eager to reopen the case has returned from Europe and been interviewed in the paper. Vicky, Michael & Diane become involved investigating what really happened all those years ago but someone doesn't want them to find out.
I found this book to be a solid start for this new series. Vicky is a very likable main character. I also liked the ladies she meets who help her open her shop and hope they play a bigger role later on. The number of suspects grows as Vicky renews some old acquaintances from high school including the sheriff. I was rather surprised at the actual killer which I love in my cozies. The coastal setting is a nice backdrop & hopefully will play a bigger role when tourist season opens in subsequent books. I will definitely read the next book in this series.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This e-book Dead to Begin With by author Vivian Conroy I received to read and review for my honest opinion. This is the first book I have read by author Vivian Conroy and I loved it. If you love Agatha Christie then this is the author you need to look. The characters of town of this story will draw you in to their charm and life stories. I will want to keep reading and learning more of the characters Vicky, Michael, Marge, Cash, and Diane just to name a few. Thank goodness the author Vivian Conroy made this into a series A Country Gift Shop Coxy mystery series so we can learn more about these characters. In this book Dead to Begin With we learn and go back to a disappearance that took place 20 years ago and how it still affects the people and this town in present day. And the determination of some of characters to find out and solve the mystery involving Celine. If you want to be kept on the edge of out sit and see how this mystery get solved this book is for you. .

3.5 stars

A good start to a new series, and while it started off slow, I'm glad I stuck with it. Once the story got going, it was hard to put down and by the time I wound my way up to the exciting ending, I was hooked. The plot blended an old disappearance with a new murder, and the many plot twists kept me on my toes, there were so many suspects that were more suspicious than the actual culprit. I admit, I didn't know who the killer was until a few pages before Vicky figured it all out, but the clues were all there. Well done!

The cute setting of Glen Cove sounds like the sort of quaint New England small town familiar to anyone who has ever watched Murder, She Wrote. In fact, I kept waiting for Jessica Fletcher to ride down the street on her bike! The colorful cast of characters added a lot of charm to the story, especially Cash. I thought his character evolved the most during the story, and that gave him more dimension than the other characters.

I have say, the one thing that brought down my enjoyment of the book was Vicky's mom, Claire. The plot and the characters added enough drama to keep the book interesting without the unnecessary distraction of a harping mother. She just didn't add any value to the story for me.

Overall, Dead to Begin With is a charming, entertaining and absorbing cozy mystery and a great start to a new series. I'll definitely keep this on my list of series to watch, and I recommend it for cozy mystery fans, who will find a lot to like.

Enjoyable cozy mystery. Cold case is brought back into everyone's focus as the twin of the victim comes back to town to get answers. Our lovely protagonist is trying to open a new retail shop featuring English items. As if she isn't busy enough, she now has to help her friends solve this old mystery. Clever mystery.

A new cozy series taking place in a fictional American seaside small town introduces Vicky Simmons, back from London to open up a gift shop of British goodies. A murder that had never been solved comes to the forefront again when the murdered girl's twin sister, Diane, comes back to town, anxious to get closure. I look forward to reading the next installment. An enjoyable read.

What a cosy story featuring a cozy murder, and some cute dogs! This has a lovely small town feel to it, where the neighbourhood grapevine is the fastest form of communications, and rumours can be started and exaggerated at the rate of knots. Even its name Glen Cove conjured up images of a pretty New England setting, and a far different pace of life to what I'm personally used to in London.

Vicky Simmons was a journalist but on returning to Glen Cove, she is intending to set up a brand new shop, selling British gifts. What is is unaware of is she isn't the only person returning to Glen Cove - there is Michael who she used to have a crush on, and Diane who is the twin sister of Celine, a girl who went missing 23 years ago from the town, and has never been found.

Diane is back and looking for answers, and Michael was only just about cleared after being the prime suspect. Between Vicky and her new friends, other anglophiles in the town, who want to help with the shop too, they need to work out what happened to Celine all those years ago, as new unwanted events are now happening in Glen Cove.

Vicky may be an amateur but she generally seems more clued on the the sheriff in town, and I loved seeing her thought processes as she tries to make sense of the information and clues that are about. I will admit I only worked out the who the bad guy was, a few pages before Vicky, but didn't know the motivation at all.

Dead to Begin With was a very welcome change of pace and scene from a lot of the other books I read, and I was drawn into the story quite fast, and certainly once the first big incident occurred was hooked and wanted to know what happened and why. This is the first book I've read by Vivian Conroy and I enjoyed the way she puts together a story, and all the different characters in Glen Cove. I am already looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Digital for this copy that I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

In Dead to Begin With by Vivian Conroy, three people return home to Maine after being away for years. One is the twin sister of a woman who disappeared 20 years ago; the second is the man accused but cleared of abducting her; and the third is trying to clear the man. This sets in motion a fire, another murder and the discovery of what happened 20 years ago. A very intriguing mystery with a difficult solution.