cozy cove

 this page is where i keep reviews of cozies i’ve read. i rate them like this:

• Gimmick: /5
  is the gimmick used effectively? does it provide good atmosphere? does it tie into the mystery well or at all?
• Mystery:❔/5
  is the mystery engaging? does it make sense? was i able to “meta game” the mystery?
• Detective Work:🕵️‍♀️/5
  does the main character have good detective skills?
• ACAB: 🐷/5
  how are the police portrayed? i think cozy mysteries are in a good position to portray the flaws in police, and i appreciate it when they do.
• Queerness: 🏳️‍🌈/😑/😢
  are there any queer people in the book? are they written respectfully?
• Overall: ⭐/5
  how would i rate the book overall? how much did i personally enjoy it?

Board to Death by CJ Connor

In a trendy Salt Lake City, Utah, neighborhood, Ben Rosencrantz's board game shop has become a community hotspot for players of all ages--and for killer collectors.

Back in his hometown of Sugar House running his family's board game shop and cafe, Ben Rosencrantz just can't seem to get his life to pass go, much less collect $200. Once he was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now he's a divorced caregiver, looking after his ill father and a chihuahua named Beans while still figuring out the rules of retail management. At least the town has become more LGBTQ+ friendly than when Ben was a teenager--and that flower shop owner Ezra McCaslin enjoys flirting with him.

But despite his usual clientele of gamers, Ben is barely earning enough to keep the store running and stay on top of his father's medical bills. Then a local toy and game collector named Clive offers him a winning strategy--to purchase a turn-of-the-twentieth-century edition of The Landlord's Game, the realty and taxation game that inspired Monopoly, at a tenth of the rare edition's true value. Suspicious of Clive's shady, low-priced deal, Ben turns the offer down.

Then Clive turns up dead in the dumpster behind Ben's shop and a backpack full of $100 bills appears on his doorstep. Now Ben is the #1 suspect in Clive's death, and unless he and Ezra can prove his innocence and find the real killer, he'll go to jail for murder--and no amount of double dice rolls will set him free . . .

 Gimmick: 🎲🎲🎲🎲
 Mystery: ❔❔
 Detective Work: 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️
 ACAB: 🐷🐷
 Queerness: 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈
 Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

   I’ve been trying to write this for a while now. While I did enjoy the book, I find myself struggling to say all that much about it? It was a pleasant book, I did like, but it’s not terribly meaty, I guess? It’s… mild. Very mild. It’s almost the exact type of mild you expect when you hear this book is set in a predominantly Mormon community, aside from the queer stuff.

   I gave this book 4 stars, but I’m gonna be honest. The book is really carried by the board game gimmick and the gay people. I totally get why other people might not vibe with it as much; representation & set-dressing can only go so far. But this book was a huge breath of fresh air for me personally, and I think the issues the book has can easily be worked out in later books in the series.

   The mystery was simple, but I think it works well enough for a first outing. It’s straightforward and to the point without being too obvious, however there is a point where it becomes pretty easy to guess who did it. There was certainly a particular detail I did not see coming lol. Something that’s less forgivable for a first book is that the mystery, and the book as a whole, are lacking in peril. The characters never really feel like they’re in any danger, from either the killer or the police.

   The cop was there. There’s not that much to say about her; she’s not harassing Ben unfairly, she’s not honing in on a clearly wrong suspect. She’s there a couple of times and that’s it. While I did appreciate just not really having to deal with the police, it contributes to the Mildness of the book.

   Regarding the bits that I liked:

   I was very much here for the gimmick. I love board games, I really like the concept of a cozy series set around a board game shop. I think it tied into the mystery well enough.

   I like Ben. While he is apprehensive about getting involved at first he makes sound decisions. There was never a point where I was annoyed with him for missing obvious information or making an obviously bad decision. He handled things realistically, or at least in a way that felt somewhat realistic. Verisimilitudinous. On one hand I really appreciate that and think it’s interesting; on the other it’s another factor in the Mildness, because most people are not as hardcore with no respect for the cops as your average cozy mystery protagonist trying to clear their grandma’s name.

   There are queer people! There are multiple queer characters in the book aside from the main gay couple. There’s a married lesbian couple, and one of the other business owners is nonbinary. The shadow of Ben’s ex looms over the narrative but he doesn’t actually appear in the book. It’s within the realm of possibility he might appear in a later book; the ex the mc still has conflicting feelings for showing up out of the blue and being implicated in murder somehow is a classic cozy plot.

   Cozy mysteries tend to be just. So straight. And there are only so many Plot Device Cop Boyfriends you can handle before you start to go a little squirrelly.

   So yeah. 4 stars from me, but I recognize that your mileage may vary.

Crafting for Murder by Barbara Emodi

Beware! A crafty killer lurks in Gasper's Cove.

Seamstress, crafter, and empty-nester Valerie Rankin has plans to open a crafter's co-op that will put Gasper's Cove, Nova Scotia on the map. One month before opening day, she still has to pin down a venue, patch up the family business, iron out corruption in the town council, and unravel why anyone who tries to help her ends up dead. With the help of her Golden Retriever, an ex-con who loves cats, and a community of first, second, and third cousins, she just might pull it off.

 Gimmick: 💸💸💸
 Mystery: ❔❔
 Detective Work: 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️
 ACAB: 🐷🐷🐷
 Queerness: 😑
 Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

   This was certainly an interesting one.

   I wrote a longer piece about this book here. Essentially, a middle-of-the-road corruption & murder mystery is livened up by the main character’s strange entrepreneurial decisions. It stuck with me, not necessarily in a good way. I give it 3 stars, because it may not have been great but I can’t deny that I was, on some level, entertained.

The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum by Kirsten Weiss

When Maddie Kosloski’s career flatlines, she retreats to her wine-country hometown for solace and cheap rent. Railroaded into managing the local paranormal museum, she’s certain the rumors of its haunting are greatly exaggerated. But a new ghost may be on the loose. A fresh corpse in the museum embroils Maddie in murders past and present. With her high school bully as one of the officers in charge, Maddie doubts justice will be served. When one of her best friends is arrested, she’s certain it won’t be. Maddie grapples with ghost hunters, obsessed taxidermists, and the sexy motorcyclist next door as outside forces threaten. And as she juggles spectral shenanigans with the hunt for a killer, she discovers there truly is no place like home.

 Gimmick: 👻👻👻
 Mystery: ❔❔
 Detective Work: 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️
 ACAB: 🐷🐷🐷
 Queerness: 😑
 Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

   This book was fine. The bones of a good cozy are there, but it’s not fleshed out enough.

   So, there were two mysteries in this book, Cora’s case and Christy’s case. Some cozies can handle having two mysteries; I don’t think this one did. Both mysteries feel subtly lacking in one way or another, and it feels like the book is just spread a bit too thin.

   The Christy case is the mystery mentioned in the synopsis where a woman is killed in Adele’s building and she is falsely accused of the crime. The Christy Case is mirrored by the Cora case, where in 1899 a woman was falsely accused of killing her husband. She was convicted and died in prison. Maddie investigates to both clear Adele & Cora’s names.

   The Christy case falls a bit flat. I can see how you would potentially connect the dots, it doesn’t not make sense for the killer to be the killer, but the clues are sparse, and some gaps had to be filled in after the fact. The second murder feels like it’s not even looked into at all & is only really mentioned in the context of it proving Adele didn’t do it.

   The Cora case comes in later & feels like it eclipses the Christy case. I'd say that investigating it takes valuable time away from the main case, but quite frankly I found this secondary case much more interesting; it ends up feeling more like this case gets rushed in favor of the main case. However, this case also feels like it crowds out the museum as well. It becomes the focal point of the museum segments & I don't feel like we get to enjoy the museum as a whole as much.

   It doesn’t help that the protagonist doesn’t really care about the museum much. Aside from solving the mysteries, her main conflict is deciding whether or not she actually wants to take over the museum, and by the end of the book I don’t really buy that she does. It really feels like she only stays with the museum because other people turn their nose up at it & she wants to show them up, and also she can’t get a job anywhere else. I simply don’t feel she has any genuine affection for the job.

   I also don’t feel she has much affection for the cat. She doesn’t seem particularly attached to him at all. Sure, she saves him from a burning building, but I think most people would try to save a cat from a burning building.

   The paranormal activity in the book is pretty lackluster. While there is some ghostly activity, Maddie doesn’t see the ghost until the very end & she shrugs it off. We learn late into the book that Maddie’s friend Harper is a witch but that doesn’t really go anywhere. I got kinda excited earlier in the book because tarot was mentioned but it never comes up again.

   On the bright side, we are blessedly free of the Plot Device Cop Boyfriend. While there are Vibes between Maddie and Detective Slate, she instead goes for the owner of the motorcycle shop neighboring the museum. The other cop, Detective Hammer, is a pretty typical asshole cop. She used to shove Maddie into lockers back in high school, and one time Maddie lamented “oh no, it’s Hammer time” as she was about to be bullied some more and apparently “Hammer time” became a meme in school and Detective Hammer has had personal beef with Maddie ever since. She actually shoves Maddie to the ground at one point in an unnecessary show of force.

   I’m giving this one 3 stars. The paranormal museum aspect had a lot of potential that didn’t come through, and the mysteries just aren’t strong enough.