This is the first book in the Lucky Whiskey Mystery series. It It is your typical first book in a series. Charlotte is called home after her Grandfather dies suddenly and she finds herself staying longer than she anticipated. Charlotte is a likable character and the story moved a long at a good pace. I will try the second book before I decide if this is a new series or me

Cozies typically are pretty similar and thats kinda why I love them. Since you don't have to focus or use too much brain power. They are the book version of that comfort show you watch over and over when you need a break from all the real world stuff. But with that being said its always fun to find one with a different niche and thats why I request this one because I'd never read one around whiskey maybe it has been done before but I've never seen it. I thought it was a great new concept to incorporate in a cozy and I cant wait to see these characters grow. I feel like you can't tell much about a cozy series from book 1 you need to read at least the first few to get a true feel about the characters but I will definitely continue with this series!

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. A great read I particularly enjoyed Charlotte, can't wait to read more

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

Reuniting with her grandfather didn’t go as planned, for Charlotte, she bumbled unto some old secrets, and her inquisitiveness almost cost her fatally. It’s full of antagonistic fun engagements with Brodie that set ablaze and commotion in her heart. This is the first in the Lucky Whiskey series, and I tell you, the first glass was addictive, just right, I loved it.

A Shot of Murder by J.A. Kazimer
Book #1: A Lucky Whiskey Mystery
Source: NetGalley and Midnight Ink
Rating: 3½/5 stars


There is only one thing in the world Charlotte Lucky would lay down her life for and that thing is actually a who. Charlotte’s grandfather, founder and head of Lucky Whiskey is in a bad way and if Charlotte doesn’t make some solid decisions soon, her grandfather is going to be worse off than he already is.

In the face of heart attack recovery, Charlotte has packed up her Hollywood life and headed home to the small town of Gett, Florida. With a population of roughly everyone knows everyone, Charlotte isn’t thrilled to be home, but she is thrilled to see her beloved grandfather. With strict orders from the doctor and his home nurse to layoff the bad food, cigars, and whiskey, Charlotte has no choice but to take over the running of the distillery. Though she was raised onsite, Charlotte isn’t a whiskey maker by nature so learning the ropes from the ground up is going to be a wild ride.

As Charlotte begins to take over the family business, she immediately notices a huge problem, the company is on the verge of financial ruin. Not wanting to upset her grandfather, Charlotte keeps the information to her herself and presses forward right on into the next huge problem, a dead man in one of her precious casks of whiskey. To say this is a disaster as well as a tragedy doesn’t even come close and Charlotte can’t keep this from her grandfather since he’s the prime suspect!

Charlotte wasn’t thrilled about having to come home and she’s even less thrilled that the idiot child town sheriff has arrested her grandfather. The idiot child doesn’t seem to want to see reason and listen to common sense, so Charlotte embarks on her own investigation into the heinous crime. As Charlotte quickly discovers, not everyone in town is thrilled with her return while others seem a bit too enthused. Sifting through friends and foes while trying to solve a murder isn’t going to be easy, but Charlotte would rather die than see her grandfather waste away in prison.

The Bottom Line: Oh, how I love a good small-town mystery! When you add in the history and drama of everyone knowing everyone else, suddenly you have a much richer and more complex cast of characters and that I will always love and appreciate. The only real issue I have with this book is Charlotte’s constant bad attitude toward Brodie Gett; while I appreciate, they have a somewhat contentious history, the middle of a murder investigation isn’t the time to be dredging up petty dramas from the past. With that said, Charlotte’s attitude wasn’t enough to keep me from enjoying this book. In fact, I was able to get through this rather quickly thanks to its pure entertainment value.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting take on the classic murder mystery. This small town npevl has a cast of quirky characters that are fun to read about. I liked the MC mosyle especially her relationship with her grandfather. The writing was good and engaging with funny quips.
At times the story was tropey and predicable which took away from the story. At times the book was stereotypical of small town America and I found some descriptions strange such as 'sepia toned lips'.
On the whole, a good book.

I love cozies, and I especially enjoy cozies with witty titles!
I had great hopes for 'A Shot of Murder, and I wasn't disappointed at all. In fact, it's a super, lively, engrossing read.
Charms is a feisty heroine, but she has her flaws in being rather stubborn, and unable to resist a handsome face, and these are what make her such a likeable, realistic character.
I found the setting fascinating, both the distillery itself with the insight into its workings, and the wider background of humid Florida with alligators at practically every turn, or so it seemed! Quite a change from rural France, and I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in it.
The plot is clever and lively, so all in all, an excellent read.

A Shot of Murder by J.A. Kazimer is the first book in the Lucky Whiskey Mystery series. Charlotte Lucky returns to her hometown after many years away to help run the family distillery following her grandfather's heart attack. When an ex-boyfriend is found dead with her grandfather the number one suspect, Charlotte sets out to clear his name. The first clue that the main character would not be likable is in the first paragraph of the book when she takes a cheap shot at Burt Reynolds. Sadly this was the first of many cheap shots which included small towns and southerners. I could have also done without the repetition. The author must have assumed that all readers have the memory of a goldfish. It has potential but needs some serious work for the future of the series.

This is a fun new cozy series I enjoyed from cover to cover. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity.

This is the debut book in the new cozy series " Lucky Whiskey Mystery Series". I enjoyed the author's setting of a small town of Gett Florida in a whiskey distillery business. The protagnist is Charlotte who was a aspiring actress in Hollywood returned home to care for her ailing Grandfather and his business. Charlotte had aspirations she is not quite ready to relinquish to small town Florida and creating Whiskey. She is not well liked among the local people and when a body is found in one of their caskets she has to step up to save her Grandfather and his business from ruin as well as save her future .

I like Charlotte who has love for her Grandfather enough to help him and save his business while making a new unexpected life for herself. She is portrayed as a real person with disappointments and dreams never realized. For this I thank the author as this is a charcter I look forward to knowing in the series. The setting of a distillery is interesting and fun to learn about. The introduction of charcters as her nemesis during her sleuthing all add to the fun. I look forward to the next in series .

When Charlotte Lucky returns home to help care for her Grandfather and the family distillery it is as if she never left. Small town gossip it seems never fades. The town of Gett seems determined to hold her one and only prank against her for all eternity.

When the Whiskey company's head distiller/ ex high school boyfriend of Charlotte is found in one of the company's caskets after being shot her Grandfather is accused of the crime. Charlotte knows she will need to solve the crime and prove her Grandfather's innocence. No way will he get a fair shake with their main competitors grandson being chief of police.

Complicating matters is the persistent meddling in the investigation by the second Gett grandson. "Grody" Brody had always caused her trouble. Their past makes it hard for her to trust him. Could he be he murderer?

The interaction with local citizens with whom she shares a past added to the small town feel the author set as the location. I found it a refreshing story line due to the fact that Charlotte is not a "natural" at solving crime. I also liked seeing her doubt herself along the way. I am sure I would doubt myself if I was suddenly thrown into the middle of a police investigation. I love the romantic tension between Charlotte and Brody. It was also amusing to have her so unaware of his feelings for her.

The characters are well written and i found myself enjoying my visit to Gett, Florida. I also found the information on whiskey production very interesting.

Fast paced and paging turning built on whiskey and a family feud Likeable characters and well written to keep you guessing until the end. Curious to see where this series will go in the future.

I originally thought I wasn't going to like this book. It was about distilling whiskey, which seemed strange, and it had a really slow start for me. But, I changed my mind about 10% into the book. The characters seemed to come alive at that point and I devoured the rest of the book! For me, this turned out to be the beginning of a very promising series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Beyond the Page Publishing for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

I learned something today, while reading A Shot of Murder: I like cozy mysteries to be set in happy places where people actually want to live (despite the high murder rate). Not some place where everything is depressing and people seem to have actually given up trying to make a go of it.

Not very surprising Charlotte left the town of Gett at the soonest opportunity. Ten years later she's back to take care of her grandfather after he had a heart-attack. For that and other reasons, it's not a happy return, and then she finds a body in a cask of whiskey and her grandfather is arrested on suspicion of murder.

The plot is interesting and kept me curious. The description of the surroundings, the people and the food made me depressed.

And a few things annoyed me: Charlotte keeps knocking over things that are way bigger than her. She knocks over a cask of whiskey (filled with body and whiskey, that should be more than 500 pounds. Not something you'd knock over accidentally). She manages to push the sheriff out of his seat by merely getting up.
Charlotte has a GPA of 4.0. This doesn't really mesh with the fact she chose a career she's not actually very good at (or seems to enjoy much).

A fun, fast-paced and page-turning mystery.
I loved the witty banter and confident writing in this cozy mystery set in the small Florida town of Getts.
The rivalry between the Lucky Whiskey Distillery and the Getts Whiskey company were the perfect background to a great story where characters and relationships drove the twists and turns of the investigation in the death of the head distiller Roger Kerrick.
The descriptions of the setting perfectly captured the heat and insect life of Florida. You could almost see the mangrove trees, huge mosquitoes and alligators living yards from the local homes.
A compelling, fun and escapist read.

The plot is pretty impressive. Lucky has a good reason for amateur sleuthing - after all, her grandfather is arrested for the murder he did not commit. Coming to the annoying bits of the story - the multiple mentions of Lucky featuring in the STD commercial and as a killer in an NCIS episode, Lucky's drunken adventures that lead to her painting the whole town 'not yellow' - this ruined the story a tad for me.
Also, I did not understand the need for the characters to be overly rude or hostile. And they do not miss a chance to ill-treat Lucky. The love-hate relationship Lucky has with Brodie was something I could not follow.
I liked the concept of 'pickled corpse in a whiskey cask' and the story has a lot of potential. However, the storytelling/execution could have been better,

A Shot of Murder is a lighthearted Southern cozy mystery and the debut novel in A Lucky Whiskey Mystery series. The story is told from Charlotte Lucky’s point-of-view. She has returned to Gett, Florida to help her grandfather after his heart attack, but Charlotte continues to hold onto her studio apartment in LA (a girl can hope). When Lucky finds their head distiller of The Lucky Whiskey Distillery shot to death in one of their casks of aging whiskey, her grandfather is arrested. Lucky begins questioning people around town and accusing them of murdering the man. Readers are then introduced to what seems like the entire population of Gett with many of them having the last name of Gett or related in some capacity. The two whiskey families (Gett and Lucky) have been feuding for two hundred years and Lucky is happy to keep the tradition alive. The Gett family is wealthy and owns many businesses in town while the Lucky family is decidedly luckless. The bickering and rivalry continues throughout the story. Brodie Gett offers to help Charlotte, or Charms as he calls her, is clearing Jack’s name. Distrust, miscommunication, and misunderstanding persists between them all through A Shot of Murder. Other recurring themes are Charlotte’s Prius (mentioned approximately 30 times), Brodie’s Jeep, the STD commercial Charlotte starred in (big mistake), extraordinarily bad food at the Gett Diner, and Charlotte blamed for writing Getting Lucky on water tower as a teenager. The townspeople are portrayed as redneck Southerners, with bad tempers, shabby clothing, large trucks, big guns and bad grammar. Alligators seem to pop up whenever Charlotte is in trouble (which is frequently) and incapacitated. The mystery was hard to concentrate on with everything else that was going on along with the multiple attacks threatening Charlotte’s life. Identifying the guilty party is, unfortunately, a cinch along with the reason for the violence. There is one man who believes a woman’s place is on her knees (and, unfortunately, he does not mean praying) and is particularly violent towards Charlotte. Foul language is rampant in A Shot of Murder. Charlotte is an immature woman with her foot stomping when she does not get her way, petulant attitude, eye rolling, accusations, rudeness, yelling and foul mouth (plus she is clumsy). I found reading A Shot of Murder to be a frustrating experience (it gave me a migraine). I did like Rue Gett and her grandson, Brodie. It is plain to see that Jack loves Charlotte. They have a sweet relationship. I liked that the book was set in the sunshine state. A Shot of Murder could have benefited from a severe editing and a major rewrite. A Shot of Murder is a blithe cozy mystery with attacking alligators, wrecked whiskey, bobbing body parts, detestable diner food, and feuding families.

I found this book highly entertaining. There were times that I was laughing out loud. This is a good mix of Southern charm, fun storyline, and characters like Charms and Grodie Brodie. Whiskey, murder, alligators, this book has it all!

An entertaining and well written murder mystery. Good plot, believable characters and a good setting. Mystery fans will love this book. I received an advance ebook from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

After spending ten years trying to make it in Hollywood, Charlotte Lucky is back in the small town of Gett, Florida to help take care of her grandfather and run the family’s whiskey business. Things are not exactly going well—making whiskey is hard work, and Charlotte also must deal with a rival whiskey-making family and the lingering resentment of the townspeople over an old high school prank. And it only gets worse when Charlotte finds the body of Lucky Whiskey’s main distiller—and her ex-boyfriend—stuffed in a barrel of whiskey. When the local law enforcement centers their investigation on her grandfather, Charlotte is forced to team up with her whiskey-making rival to find the real killer and prove that Jack is innocent.
A SHOT OF MURDER is the first novel in the cozy mystery series by J.A. Kazimer. The story has a good plot, and Charlotte has a legitimate reason for getting involved in an amateur investigation. The local law enforcement have basically decided that her grandfather is guilty and are not pursuing any other suspects. There is a lot of back and forth between Charlottes and her rival Brodie Gett—she cannot decide if she can trust him or not. Nor can she decide if he should be one of her main suspects. Their back and forth, hot and cold “relationship” got a bit tedious at times. It felt like every other page Charlotte was had to question Brodie or herself for putting up with Brodie. She constantly believes the worst of him and there are countless misunderstandings between them that cause unnecessary drama. Charlotte is supposed to be in her late 20s, but her maturity level seems to be stuck in her late teens—as does the maturity level of some of the locals that Charlotte encounters. She constantly compares Gett to Hollywood, causing her to find the hometown lacking as she portrays it as a clichéd small southern town.
Overall, A SHOT OF MURDER was an interesting story and the mystery plot kept me guessing until the end. The resistiveness of certain aspects, as well as Charlotte’s immature attitude, kept me from fully getting into the novel. Because I like the concept, I will give the second novel in the series a try.