What a great start in this new series! Full of great characters, a twisty plot, and plenty of suspects that will keep you guessing until the end. I was totally surprised by who the murderer turned out to be! Well done! I can't wait to read the next book in this series!

Dollycas's Thoughts

In this first Secret Bookcase Mystery, we meet Annie Murray. She and her best friend Scarlet planned to start a detective agency after graduation with their criminal justice degrees. Then Scarlet was murdered. Annie has spent the better part of a decade trying to find her killer. Whenever she opens her laptop and brings up her spreadsheets of information and theories she thinks it will be the day something will jump out at her to move the case forward.

Annie is working at The Secret Bookcase as a bookseller and events manager. The bookstore is a unique shop in a converted manor house with a thrilling crime fiction selection. Business has been slow and she knows to keep the place open it is going to take a major event. She comes up with the idea of a 3-day Mystery Fest that could involve all the local businesses and bring people from far and wide. The town is excited about the festival and most business owners are happy to be involved.

Mystery Fest was off to a great start until a body was discovered in the bookstore. Some customers think it's fake and a prop for the festival, but Annie knows that is not the case. Soon she finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation. Can her criminology degree help her book the killer this time? or will it turn into another ice-cold case?

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I love the theme of this new series from Ellie Alexander. A manor home repurposed into a really cool bookstore complete with themed rooms and a secret bookcase. The author's descriptions made it easy to envision every room and nook. I want to go there now, please.

Annie Murray is a strong, smart, creative protagonist who has found her place in Redwood Grove. The quiet community gives her peace even though Scarlet's death is always on her mind. The bookstore is a huge part of her life and it needed a boost to keep the doors open. She had a great idea and was able to run with it. She is an excellent multitasker and able to juggle everything thrown at her. I love that she adopted Scarlet's tabby cat, Professor Plum. I had a very easy time getting invested in her life.

We also meet her co-worker Fletcher, shop owner Hal, and Annie's friend Priya. Fletcher has "extensive knowledge and adoration" of Sherlock Holmes and has quite a knack for matching the right reader with the right canon followed by a dissertation on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Hal curated the store into a mystery lover's paradise but lately, book signing events were not bringing in people and foot traffic had been way down. Hal is a total Luddite though.  He can barely turn on his phone so he needs help to save his store. Priya is a good friend and is there for Annie no matter what. I enjoyed how all the characters evolved throughout the book leaving room for growth as the series continues.

I found the mysteries in this book very captivating. I found it interesting that Annie's (and Scarlet's) former criminology professor, Dr. Caldwell was the detective in charge of the investigation. She knew Annie would be an excellent person to help her solve the case. Annie was happy to help, as was Pri. There were plenty of clues to follow and a growing list of suspects to investigate. I enjoyed the way everyone worked together to catch the killer.

Scarlet's case is fluid again at the end of this story and the first two chapters of book two, Murder at the Movies are included at the end of the book. They may have enlightened me but I didn't read them. I would never be able to stop at just two chapters. I hope to read and review the whole book soon.

The Body in the Bookstore has given this series a marvelous start. Diverse and engaging characters, wonderful world-building, and an enticing mystery come together for an entertaining escape.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I have a confession. I did this backwards. I read the second book in the series first and then realized this was the premiere book. Silly me. The good news is it made very little difference. Most of the important parts that carried over were clear enough in the second book, Murder at the Movies. I liked the characters as much and the relationship between Annie and Dr. Caldwell, which captured me, has it’s first steps in here. The two were student and professor when Annie was doing a criminology degree. Annie now works in the bookstore whilst the good doctor is now the head of police in their small town.

Running into Dr. Caldwell is not the only trip down memory lane for Annie. Three people from her university days show up for the mystery weekend she has organized. They pour salt into open wounds caused by the murder of her best friend on graduation day. When one of them is then murdered, they, amongst others, are suspects in the crime. I will say I figured out the killer almost from the start but it did not detract from a cracking good tale. Since both books are available at the same time, I suggest you read them in order. Or not. Five purrs and two paws up.

The Body in the Bookstore by Ellie Alexander is a great cozy mystery story. It is the first book of her new book series A Secret Bookcase Mystery. It keeps you interested and wanting to keep reading from start to finish. It has a lot of shocking and surprising twist throughout the book too. It keeps you guessing too. It is a great, fun, exciting, and unique book too. Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for giving me a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I want to thank netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I really enjoyed this book a lot. I loved the characters and the plot. Perfect for those who are fans of cozy murder mysteries. Highly recommend! I would read from this author again!

I need to really apologize for this late review. I make sure to write the reviews in time,but unfortunately I really got very busy for the past 2months.
I think this book is a solid 3.75*. I enjoyed the story and the characters but it felt a bit flat. I expected a bit more mystery and danger. It felt like people didn't took the murder that serious, maybe because of the event's theme?
I also low key hoped for a bit more romance :P, hopefully it will a bit more in the next volumes.
Anyway, I think it's cool to read this story in holiday. It was relaxing.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. A bookstore, a bookish event and a murder... yes please! I had a fun time trying to guess who the murderer was and didn't guess until just before the reveal. The cast of characters were great and I can't wait to see how this series goes. Highly recommend picking this one up.

An enjoyable book with well drawn characters and locations. An olde worlde feeling of Agatha Christie has been created. There are many possible suspects and each story is worked through and then another ‘clue’ comes to light. There is menace and it is a compelling read. It is a book that will appeal to readers of modern mysteries.

A great first book in a new series. A fun cozy mystery that dropped a lot of red herrings. I had it figured out early. A simply mystery imo but hopefully the next one will be harder to solve.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

Ellie Alexander writes a cute cozy about the Secret Bookcase mystery bookstore in a small town whose survival means finding more customers in The Body in the Bookstore. Annie Murray envisions a mystery festival including all the stores in the event. The festival is a great success, but the body of a very unpopular woman from outside the community is discovered on the secret staircase behind the bookcase in the mystery bookstore. Whodunit? Lots of victims of the deceased provide suspects. Read and enjoy. First of a new series.

• The plot was quite engaging and kept me hooked for the most part.
• Every character had a plausible motive, making me suspect almost everyone at some point.
• The vivid descriptions of the mystery festival, painted quite a picture of the events.
• And references to Agatha Christie were a delightful touch!

What could’ve been better : 🤌🏻

• The investigation felt a tad simple. I craved more twists and turns.
• Annie’s criminology background—could’ve been put to better use.
• Character details of the actual culprit were a bit lacking, and seemed somewhat open-ended.
Maybe it was a teaser for the second part? Guess I’ll find out when I read it.

A great start to a new series! Wonderful characters in an incredible setting. This book will keep you guessing until the end.

The Body in the Bookstore is the 1st Secret Bookcase shopfront cozy by Ellie Alexander. Released concurrently with the second book in the series on 19th June 2024 by Storm publishing, it's 274 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The second book in the series is also currently available on KU. A third series book is due out from the same publisher at the end of Sept. 2024.
This is a well written light cozy with a MC who runs a bookshop in a small tourist town destination. The background is well interwoven in the book, and it works as a standalone. When an acquaintance from her past winds up dead in her bookshop, Annie tries to solve the crime to save the bookshop and clear her name. It was an interesting choice to release the first two books simultaneously, but it would make a good binge/buddy read for that reason, and given the timing of the third book, it looks like the author/publisher might be on a semi-annual publishing schedule, which is nice.

The author is prolific and quite experienced, the plotting is fairly tight and it doesn't drag. The book is very clean, with only a sprinkling of light cursing and nothing more objectionable in the book than off-page murder, and the requisite threatened violence in the denouement and solution. Definitely safe for reading at work or on the bus.

Four stars, a fun light cozy mystery. The series will be a hit with fans of "Jessica Fletcher", Cleo Coyle, and Jenn McKinlay and other small town storefront cozies.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Gratitude to the author and NetGalley for the advanced review copy e-book.
A cosy mystery, compelling read. I enjoyed the context of a mystery within a mystery festival at a mystery bookstore; the meta setup very Agatha Christie like. I wish there had been closure to both mysteries by the end of the book, not just the titular body in the bookshop.
A good summer read.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

I must say that to date Ellie Alexander and her storytelling have never failed me. This first book, Body in the Bookstore, in her new series – A Secret Bookcase Mystery series – does not disappoint. Then again, I think back on all the books I have read by this author (specifically the Sloan Krause series) and I realize I have always been totally engaged in the books I read and most often, had difficulty until the end figuring out ‘whodunit’. Which I must admit is the way that I like my cozy mystery reads :)

This reader was lead through a wonderfully executed introduction to the residents of Redwood Grove and especially our amateur sleuth, Annie Murray. The town of Redwood Grove is picturesque. Who wouldn’t want to live one hour away from the Pacific Ocean and a couple hours away from a ski hill? I did ponder about the word “amateur” when referring to Annie as she has a degree in criminology. Unfortunately, due to Annie’s best friend being murdered just before their college graduation, Annie’s criminology degree and training are going unused. As we quickly learn, Annie feels a massive amount of guilt over Scarlet’s death. Scarlet was murdered while following up on a lead for their final criminology project which was to examine an unsolved murder. The class was tasked with reviewing the crime scene, suspects, and case notes and extrapolating any new insight. Scarlet and Annie went all in… and it seems got too close to finding out who the murderer was.

Scarlet’s murder haunts Annie to this day as told by the musings of Annie early on in the book:

“…Scarlet’s life had been cut short. The guilt of her unsolved murder clung to me like a persistent shadow. Until I tracked down Scarlet’s killer and ensured they were behind bars for good, I knew that shadow would never dissipate.”

Annie has been working at the Secret Bookcase as a bookseller and event coordinator for eight years, since graduation. The bookstore needs more sales if it is to stay afloat. Annie comes up with the idea of a mystery-themed book festival for the town. A win for everyone. In fact, the event is going along better than anyone’s wildest dreams…until one of Annie’s old college acquaintance (Kayla Minter) is found dead within the shelves of the bookstore! Further involving the past, her past criminology professor, Dr. Caldwell, is the police detective involved with solving the murder of Kayla.

Annie is asked by Dr. Caldwell to keep her eyes and ears open as people are more likely to talk to her than anyone in law enforcement. Annie does that and more. She wants to figure out who killed Kayla and why. As Annie runs through the potential list of suspects, we see her come out of her shell more. By the end of the story, Annie seems more self assured and willing to pursue who killed Scarlet. Time will tell how this part of Annie’s story plays out, though if I was a betting woman, I would say that this will be a recurring theme and part of the plots for all future books in this series. Hopefully Dr. Caldwell will also be a part of this story arc as well.

I loved the name of some of the town’s establishments -> Cryptic Coffee – the local coffee house. Or

Stag Head (owned by Liam Donovan) – a bar in town, which hosts historical trivia nights. And lest we forget – Artifacts -> a clothing boutique.

I got a chuckle out of Annie’s bestie – Pri (full name Priya Kapoor) who works at Cryptic Coffee. Pri has a crush on one customer and she only knows him as “Double Americano with cold foam”. Can’t wait for future books in this series so we get more information on this particular customer!

I found Body in the Bookstore a wonderful addition to the long list of books written by Ellie Alexander. I did not figure out completely ‘whodunit’ until the end. The character development was well told and the townspeople are interesting. It was a read which drew me in and would not let me go until I had read the last page! I cannot wait (and luckily I don’t have to as both books were released together 🙂 ) to start the second book in the series A Murder at the Movies.

This was an extremely fun story. The owners of the bookstore sponsor a weekend event to promote their bookstore getting the whole town to participate in different events to bring more business to everyone. When they find the body in the bookstore they have to find a killer before something else happens. I would recommend this book to everyone.

As a fan of Ellie Alexander's Bakeshop series, I was super excited to start this one. The Body in the Bookstore met my expectations for a cozy mystery worth sinking into. Alexander does such a great job of creating a setting that feels like a place to visit. Annie and the other characters are people I am excited to get to know. I look forward to the next installment of this series.

I struggled to get into this book. I eventually found the characters, the setting, and the mystery festival to be a compelling backdrop to the murder mystery. I also thought the list of suspects believable and compelling. But I kept expecting more and dealing with disappointment. I really thought the low stakes climax, in which it didn’t matter what Annie discovered at all, was a red herring and we’d find out that someone else did it and they had the wrong person and murderer chases her down just when she realizes they were wrong and… and… but no. Plus a few things that seemed to be set ups for later didn’t end up going anywhere. I also found the back and forth between Annie and the potential love interest to be juvenile and honestly not cute. More like a “he’s yanking on your pigtails because he likes you” situation, which was ick.
The writing was also really clunky and felt like it was written for a teenage audience.
So, three stars for the concept. Two stars deducted for execution.

I’ve never read a book by this author before but I absolutely loved it! Thank you so much for the ARC! I loved this story, it was extremely well written. Will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author!

This is the debut book in the charming new cozy series '"The Secret Bookcase Mystery Series" by cozy mystery author Ellie Alexander. Annie is a savvy smart protagnist who has a criminology degree. She works in a bookstore set in a small town, Redwood Grove. Annie is plagued by the death of her friend and throws herself into her work. Annie has a wonderful idea to hold a town wide "mystery festival". The festival is a success drawing mystery readers in to follow clues at various businessess to try to solve mysteries. The turn out is unexpected and the bookstore's involvement is a huge success when a murder occurs.

I loved all the characters and the town. I also loved that Ellie, herself, has done a mystery festival going on its second year.

This book kept me engaged while making me feel that I was there in Redwood Grove. I can’t wait to read the second and third books in this series.