Scan barcode
A review by kimdavishb
Murder by the Seashore by Samara Yew
4.0
MURDER BY THE SEASHORE is the first book in the brand-new California Bookshop Mystery series by Samara Yew. This delightful seaside cozy mystery is the perfect book to escape into, whether while dreaming of vacation or while sitting on a beach listening to crashing waves and cawing seagulls. Protagonist Scarlett Gardner has just opened her Palm Trees and Page Turners bookshop in Oceanside, CA. She is a likeable young woman but what really makes her character shine is the interaction she has with her sidekick and roommate, attorney Lucia. With this being the first book, there’s only so much character development you can do without detracting from the mystery and I’m looking forward to getting to know both of the women better in future books.
The discovery of a body happens early on in the book, which kept the pace flowing. Ms. Yew does an admirable job building a case for why Scarlett needs to get involved. Adding to the mystery of who killed the woman, was also the identity of the woman and how she was connected to Scarlett who had only briefly met her at the bookshop the night before the murder. The multi-faceted plotlines kept me engrossed to find out what happened next…and I wasn’t disappointed as the story unfolded. This is a wonderful start to what I hope is a long-running series!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to the audio version of the book. Narrator Catherine Ho does an admirable job in capturing not only the different voices of the characters, but their personalities as well. It was easy to follow the dialog of the various voices and helped me envision each character.
The discovery of a body happens early on in the book, which kept the pace flowing. Ms. Yew does an admirable job building a case for why Scarlett needs to get involved. Adding to the mystery of who killed the woman, was also the identity of the woman and how she was connected to Scarlett who had only briefly met her at the bookshop the night before the murder. The multi-faceted plotlines kept me engrossed to find out what happened next…and I wasn’t disappointed as the story unfolded. This is a wonderful start to what I hope is a long-running series!
Many thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to the audio version of the book. Narrator Catherine Ho does an admirable job in capturing not only the different voices of the characters, but their personalities as well. It was easy to follow the dialog of the various voices and helped me envision each character.