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Murder in Paradise #1

Murder in Bermuda

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Her phone rang and she picked it up without checking the caller ID.

"This is Anna." Her focus was on the seating chart in front of her.

"You're next if you don't let this go." a hushed raspy voice warned and hung up the phone.

Startled, she looked through the caller ID to see if it showed who made the call. Her stomach felt sick as she came across the number and the name. The killer had taken Tony's phone and used it to call her. Now, there was no denying that the killer indeed knew who she was and knew she was still snooping into matters....


Event planner, Anna Winters,wants nothing more than to ensure the wedding reception for millionaire Tony Giovani and his beautiful new bride, Meadow, proceeds without a hitch.So far, things have gone exactly as planned. The happy couple'sfriends and family have gatheredat the Grand Palatial, a posh hotel in Bermuda which caters exclusively to the rich and famous, and are anxiously awaiting the cutting of the cake.

Just when Anna is about to call the night a smashing success, the police are summoned to investigate a murder. The cake was poisoned, the groom is dead and suddenly everyone's a suspect. The pandemonium infuriates Anna's boss, Mr. Puccio.He's more worried about the hotel's reputation than the fact a guest is dead and, to make matters worse, he's holding Anna responsible for restoring the hotel's good name. Now it's up to her to find out who killed Tony or else she's out of a job.

The police order the hotel and its occupants detained until further notice and Anna discreetly enlists a few trusted employees to help with her investigation. Clues are discovered, leads are followed,and it isn't long before Anna is dangerously close to the truth. But someone isn't happy about her involvement and Anna has to work fast before she becomes the next victim.

Murder in Bermuda is the first installment in the "Murder in Paradise"cozy mystery series by author Penelope Sotheby.

If you are a fan of cozy mysteries that contain an ingenious but modest woman sleuth then you will love Anna Winters' first adventure.

Scroll up and get your hands on this exciting cozy culinary mystery whodunit.

99 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2015

175 people are currently reading
393 people want to read

About the author

Penelope Sotheby

22 books41 followers

Author of Cozy Mystery Novels. I am very glad you found me here. Let's connect on Facebook. That's where I love to chat with readers.

https://www.facebook.com/penelopesoth...

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5 stars
92 (18%)
4 stars
104 (20%)
3 stars
141 (27%)
2 stars
96 (18%)
1 star
78 (15%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
Profile Image for Carrie.
3,579 reviews1,696 followers
August 31, 2018
Murder in Bermuda is the first book in the cozy Murder in Paradise mystery series. The series features Anna Winters who is a destination wedding planner who has turned sleuth when a murder happens at her latest wedding.

In this first book Anna is busy making sure everything around her at the wedding is going off without a hitch when someone slips some poison to the groom. With Anna's job on the line she vows that she is going to find this killer but doesn't expect to be threatened to be next in line.

Ok, looking at the title of this novella you would think that it would be right up my alley. I love cozy mysteries and I love destination reads to take a little virtual vacation. However, the first things I notice when reading, there's really not much to even show that it's set in Bermuda so disappointment number one.

As for the rest of the book I would almost expect to get to the end and think it needed a bit of this or a bit of that with it being a novella but I would hope to still have a good story. However, this one was shaky at best, the dialogue often felt a bit off and the story is barely surface level making this one just not my cup of tea.

For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Profile Image for Deborah.
3,852 reviews498 followers
May 18, 2016

Just dreadful.


I have to say this is one of the worse books I've ever read and the only reason I even stuck with it is because I used to live in Bermuda and I was curious, let me tell you it's true what they say curiosity really does kill the cat.
The writing is terrible, the dialogue is dreadful and dull and the whole book is beyond ridiculous,
Anna is a member of the hotel staff dealing with catering yet she takes it upon herself to solve the murder, then her boss tells her her job depends on her solving the case, is she the reincarnation of Sherlock Homes?
Despite the police being on the case Anna manages to take all three wedding videos, then to all intends and purposes it's as if she's in charge of the investigation, she wanders around interviewing suspects, making accusations and even gets into the honeymoon suite.
I'm not saying anymore you've got my opinion because if I don't stop now I'll be ranting on for ages about this book, did I mention how tedious the dialogue was.
Profile Image for Carmen.
2,777 reviews
June 13, 2019
“That was pretty stupid.” Detective Maese snapped at Anna. “You could have been killed. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was trying to do your job for you.” Anna smiled. “I couldn’t wait for another go around of not having enough evidence.”
Profile Image for Barbara.
760 reviews6 followers
March 18, 2018
This was my first book by author Penelope Sotheby and it was good. It was a very fast read as it’s a short book. The premise of the book is very good. Anna Winters, an event planner, is in Bermuda at a fancy resort for a very expensive wedding. Somehow, the groom dies and for some reason it’s up to Anna to figure out who did it in order to save her job. I didn’t understand that part at all but just let it go. The book started slow for me but I got into it and thought it was good. As a mystery, it had twist and turns and you may be surprised by the ending.

This wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read but I will try reading this author again.

Profile Image for Lisa Denn.
510 reviews2 followers
June 22, 2017
Murder in Bermuda, written by Penelope Sotheby, was a bit of a challenge to solve thanks in part to the realistic portrayal of the suspects.

Sotheby's characters are described in such a way that the reader agrees with the protaganist's analysis of each characters emotions. I had on two separate occasions determined who the guilty party was only to find myself persuaded otherwise by the protaganist's internal thoughts.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would encourage other mystery fans looking for a quick yet challenging mystery to grab a copy of Murder in Bermuda.
Profile Image for Linda.
463 reviews
October 4, 2017
Anna, Cassandra, Pauline and Pierre are doing a wedding in Bermuda. Everything is perfect. It's time to eat the cake. Tony (the groom) has requested a special piece be given to his lovely bride Meadow.
When feeding the cake to Tony, he starts to foam at the mouth and falls to the floor dead. Who killed him?
Anna is warned to stop her investigation or else. High intensity novel with a great payoff. You'll never guess who the murderer is. Penelope Sotheby has a way of surprising you with the twists and turns in the plot.
Received this book for free. This is my honest review
Profile Image for Tara Brown.
334 reviews28 followers
June 23, 2017
Murder in Bermuda by Penelope Sotheby is a book I really enjoyed! I am always willing to read a book that is going to take me someplace I've never been, so I knew this was definitely one I couldn't pass on! I'm so happy I found this author and even happier to see that this is just Book 1 in a series of many! Woohoo! I am looking forward to reading more from this series, and many more books from this author! I recommend you do the same...you will not be disappointed! Thank you!
Profile Image for Sharon.
295 reviews
May 26, 2017
Wedding Day Mayhem

As the bride & groom feed each other cake, the groom falls to the ground dead. The police confirm his piece was poisoned and Anna must solve the mystery or lose her job. The story has potential, but it seemed to move too fast. There was not enough depth to the characters and the story could have been a bit more detailed.
Profile Image for laura8759.
150 reviews18 followers
August 8, 2017
Thank you so much to Instafreebie for the pdf download of murder in Bermuda , it was a cozy mystery with a lot of suspect's with motives and means to commit murder there are jobs and lives on the line with twist and turns on every page it is a great whodunit mystery I would recommend this book to my friends and family LAURA8759 .
1 review1 follower
May 29, 2018
I only finished it because I hate to leave a book unfinished. The sentence structure was like reading a toddler’s hardboard book ..writing was horrid and no depth to the story. The storyline was so unbelievable and implausible I will not read any more of the series. Don’t bother. The only good thing is it was at least short so it was over quick. Ugh.. 🤦🏻‍♀️
77 reviews
March 2, 2023
No way to tell where this story took place other than in a hotel. Dialog is horrible. Anna decides to solve a murder on her own. She walks around the hotel that is on lockdown and talks to suspects and takes evidence without being stopped by the police who are supposed to be investigating. The only time you know the police are there is when she calls them to falsely accuse a guest.
Profile Image for Ann.
485 reviews6 followers
July 21, 2017
Enjoyable cosy with lots of twists and turns
4,417 reviews43 followers
August 1, 2019
Too many suspects and yet not enough. I do like truffles though. Truffles and this story. And I recommend the book.
Profile Image for Sandra Small.
106 reviews
February 25, 2017
Bravo!

Well done Ms Sotheby. Pleasantly surprised to have an in depth story in so few pages!! I was guessing until the very end! Read the whole book in one sitting! Keep em coming! I always liked a good mystery to solve!
Profile Image for Marisa.
1,076 reviews126 followers
apuntados
March 5, 2017
Amazon - 09/12/2016
Profile Image for 5ngela.
266 reviews10 followers
December 27, 2016
At first I have doubt whether to read this book or not. But I thought what's wrong, it just 100+ pages. Actually it was not really that bad compare to my previous book. The story is simple. There's a murder in lavish wedding in Bermuda. You thought they would have great security team there. No, someone managed to easily poison the bridegroom. Worse, the owner of the hotel, want Anna Winter to solve the problem just because she is the one who serve the food, even though there are already police over there. Yeah very believable. Basically the police is non existent. There are many characters in there. Most are just canon fodder. They are there just for the sake of being there. You don't care about them.

If there are people that I have to choose to are, it was the deceased bridegroom. I mean you just cannot help sympathize with him. Being killed in his own wedding day. Not to mention, your bride have an affair with your good friend even though one day have not passed. Worse, you are not actually the intended victim. Well, that's that. Anyway, it was moving with quick pace. So, you don't have to deal with unnecessary drama. The good point it was short story and the bad point it was also short story. Take your pick. Anyway, despite everything I still give this 2.5 stars instead of 2 because I quite enjoy it while it last even though it was more suitable for comedy instead of crime mystery.

Rating : 2.5 of 5

www.sharing55tories.blogspot.com
Profile Image for Cynthia Maddox.
Author 1 book19 followers
August 4, 2015
Where do I start? It was dismal. It was a bore from the beginning, but I gave it my best shot. I got just over 50% and had to stop. I considered skimming to the end but by then I was so annoyed by the lack of mystery I couldn't take any more.

I know a good mystery. I've read all of Christy, Marsh, & Sayers and others. It would be silly to compare this book with any of their works. Writing a good mystery takes skill. There must be strong central characters, good writing, and good plotting. This book had poor writing, lots of airhead characters and felt more like a pantser (seat of the pants) rather than plotted. Cops show up, but the main character simply takes over solving the case. This in itself is not unusual for mysteries, but good mysteries actually have clues, red herrings, and a logical plot. This one had none and it all appeared contrived.

Then, you have the inconsistencies. When did this take place? I presume it is current but since there's no mention maybe it could be any time. If you didn't have things that tend to tie it to a decade. No one uses tapes" anymore to make videos. Hotels no longer use signed registers, at least the expensive ones don't. As I recall even Motel 6 stopped using those years ago. They went out about the time room keys did. The main character used a key card.

Was it in Bermuda? I don't know. Other than a pointlessly described sunset and a less than memorable hotel, I remember nothing about the setting.

Characters were one dimensional. I know the color of some of their eyes, hair, and maybe some clothes. Pierre's more than anyone else's but then he was the love interest, although, there was never a love scene or any indication of love other than a few winks and the main characters thoughts on how much she liked him. However, she never showed it.

Truly, I hate giving bad reviews but this book was dull and failed to deliver any of the usual mystery. I saw there there are 5 of this series on Amazon. I truly, truly hope they got better. I won't pay to find out.
Profile Image for A.M..
Author 7 books57 followers
Read
March 26, 2016
Anna Winters is the event planner at a hotel when the worst happens; the groom drops dead after eating the wedding cake.
***
Interesting font on the cover… blood spatter.
Oh boy… editing. Speech is marked with a comma at the end if there is a speech tag. Eg. “Thank you, Anna.” Tony replied. Should be: “Thank you, Anna,” Tony replied.
New paragraph for a new speaker.
This book has no EDITOR!
She cut a hunk off the cake before the photographs? This is a $250k wedding and that is a feral bride, right there.
No. The bride and groom don’t work out when stuff happens on the wedding day; they are in a panicked haze and are ordered around by the photographer or wedding planner. The writer has never been to a wedding.
The groom dies eating the cake, there is a cop on the scene and the MC just stole video evidence.
And she’s going to lose her job. No mourning for the dead groom, or the traumatised bride… nope. Just her; maybe losing her job.
Now she’s trying to serve a meal to the guests. Why were they already cutting the cake, then? And who is going to eat after they watched a man DIE?
She just told the bride not to cry because she’ll ruin her makeup.
I repeat her HUSBAND JUST DIED.
And now she’s dragged the bride off to the kitchen to feed her and quiz her about possible suspects. Wtf?
I already hate the MC. The bad editing is hurting my eyes. I can’t read any more.
Dnf 18%
Profile Image for Tony Parsons.
4,156 reviews101 followers
December 22, 2016
Anna Winters (36) was an Event planner for the Grand Palatial Hotel (Bermuda).
Tony Giovani (millionaire) & Meadow Graves (Tony’s wife) will get married there.
Tony was later murdered.
Cassandra had given a piece of cake to him that was poisoned.
The 1st. suspect was Anna.
Detective Michael Maese was assigned to the case.

Will the murder mystery be solved?

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. Only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written cozy mystery book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great who-dun-it murder mystery movie, or better yet a mini TV series. To be continued. A very easy rating of 5 stars.

Thank you for the free Amazon Digital Services LLC; book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)
Profile Image for Bev.
3,274 reviews98 followers
June 11, 2016
Anna Winters and Pauline Baker have catered a high scale wedding for the Grand Palatial Premium Wedding Service. When it comes time to eat the first bite of cake by the bride and groom, the groom requests a particular piece for the bride. When the groom takes his bite of cake, his face gets all red and he starts foaming at the mouth the dies. The Entertainment Director of the Grand Palatial tells Anna she better find out who killed the groom or else he will make sure she never works in the industry again and gives her 48 hrs to find the killer. No more exotic tropical locations for Anna and her friends if she fails. Why is the bride's father getting "chummy" with the groom's ex-girlfriend? Why is the bride's ex-boyfriend at the wedding? Then they find a note outside the honeymoon suite's door that says, "DIE". Who would threaten the happy couple on their wedding day? Why was the groom killed? Read the book to find the answers to the whys and the who. I received a copy of this book as a gift for an honest review.
Profile Image for Emma Lincoln.
173 reviews23 followers
November 4, 2015
Not great. The plot could have been so much more and it just wasn't. It was poorly written, confusing, and under developed. I am sorry Penelope because I really don't like to shoot down anyone that is willing to put their ideas down on paper but you could have really had something here and instead, the story was so fast and so under done that I pretty much missed the whole thing!

You had all the elements of a great who done it; murder, a perfect suspect, then another, and another, a possible suspect you don't see, add a little romance and boom it was perfect. except it wasn't.

Sorry, I got this book for free but would still not even recommend it.
514 reviews5 followers
January 30, 2016
No Mystery

First, this book needs an editor - grammar, punctuation, content editing badly needed! Second, I can't believe that the first thing she should have checked was left until the end - case should have been solved in the first chapter. Third, plot with caterer doing the investigating and police doing nothing was not believable in the least. Fourth, a true detective does not go around accusing various people as they assume situations.

I have been reading mysteries for close to 50 years. This writer shows promise but needs much more practice in developing her story line.
Profile Image for Barbara.
19.2k reviews8 followers
October 27, 2016
A very good mystery one that you keep you guessing until the end. Anna Winters is an Events Planner is planning the wedding reception for millionaire Tony Giovani and his beautiful new bride, Meadow;everything is going along well until all of a sudden Tony is dead poisoned by the wedding cake.With the events happening from the murder her boss , Mr. Puccio wants Anna to restore the hotels good name she must find the killer or she is out of a job. With clues ,leads she is getting close with the help of trusted staff but then she gets a phone call telling her if she does not stop she is next. What happens ?
Profile Image for Jason.
2,386 reviews13 followers
December 9, 2015
While it was a cute concept for a cozy, there is a lot of work needed on this one. As it is it reads like a first draft of a YA book rather than a cozy. The characters are not solidly written, there is no sense of who they really are as they keep doing and saying things are out of character from how they behaved or spoke in a previous scene. Some of the scenarios are completely unrealistic so it's hard to become too involved. The mystery is not that difficult to figure out. Nice attempt but needs more research and development.
Profile Image for Will Decker.
Author 23 books17 followers
January 3, 2017
I'm going to be generous giving this story 2 stars. The writing is dull and the cardboard characters act and speak as if they're stoned. The editing is non-existent. The sentence and paragraph structure errors abound. The formatting is all over the place. The plot is even more fractured than the grammar. I'm not sure what the author was going for here, but the entire thing is a bad joke. A complete waste of reading time.
Profile Image for Vickie Backus.
143 reviews1 follower
July 19, 2015
This book is just plain bad. The plot is thin to the point of transparency, the characters are completely 1 dimensional, there is no sense of place and it is very short. Even as a short story it would be horrible. I've read a lot of junk in my day and this is truly not worth the pixels it was "printed" with.
10 reviews
February 4, 2017
Lighthearted reading

I will look forward to reading the rest of the series. Moves along quickly and makes for wonderful bedtime reading.
8 reviews
June 26, 2015
No mystery/no story

I did not have any interest after 5 pages I kept seeing a cookie cutter.I assume the other stories will be the same.Gave 3 stars because I liked the length and the editing was good.
Profile Image for Bonnie Rice.
Author 3 books15 followers
July 17, 2015
Interesting characters and situation

Nice cozy mystery. Well written, kept me turning pages to the end. Interesting characters that I want to get to know better. Glad it's the start of a series.
Profile Image for merry odowd.
25 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2015
Murdered by this book

Perhaps one should not review a book that one could only suffer through seven chapters of, but here goes: don't read this dreary, melodramatic, disjointed, dull story.
I would not recommend this book to ANYONE.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews

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