What do you think?
Rate this book
Eagle Cove Mysteries #1
Murder So Deep
Why is there a dead body in my basement?!?
I'm having quite a year — painfully divorced, laid off from my job, desperately missing my daughter who's just started college — when word comes that my beloved Aunt Emily has died.
After rushing back to my New England hometown of Eagle Cove for the funeral, I find out my aunt has willed me her long-shuttered cafe.
My oh-so-sensible plan is to fix up the cafe and sell it — but then I unearth that darned body in the basement. And now evidence is pointing to my aunt as the culprit!
No way am I letting a mummified corpse hurt my aunt's good name. Aided and abetted by a misfit gang of unlikely allies, I'm digging deep into the past to find the truth.
My mom wants me to back off. The town sheriff is worried about my safety. And for all I know, they could be right.
Because as secrets are revealed and danger closes in, I'm shocked by what I discover....
Murder So Deep is a small-town New England cozy mystery full of murder, mayhem, and secrets galore. Throw in a hint of romance with a handsome sheriff, an adorable cat named Mr. Snuggles, and a cast of characters with warm hearts and tart tongues — and what do you get? A deliciously, murderously good time.
I'm having quite a year — painfully divorced, laid off from my job, desperately missing my daughter who's just started college — when word comes that my beloved Aunt Emily has died.
After rushing back to my New England hometown of Eagle Cove for the funeral, I find out my aunt has willed me her long-shuttered cafe.
My oh-so-sensible plan is to fix up the cafe and sell it — but then I unearth that darned body in the basement. And now evidence is pointing to my aunt as the culprit!
No way am I letting a mummified corpse hurt my aunt's good name. Aided and abetted by a misfit gang of unlikely allies, I'm digging deep into the past to find the truth.
My mom wants me to back off. The town sheriff is worried about my safety. And for all I know, they could be right.
Because as secrets are revealed and danger closes in, I'm shocked by what I discover....
Murder So Deep is a small-town New England cozy mystery full of murder, mayhem, and secrets galore. Throw in a hint of romance with a handsome sheriff, an adorable cat named Mr. Snuggles, and a cast of characters with warm hearts and tart tongues — and what do you get? A deliciously, murderously good time.
- GenresCozy MysteryFiction
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2019
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 28, 2025
A good one!
I can hardly wait until my book budget allows me to get the succeeding volumes!
The mystery begins early in the book and has several twists and turns before leaving the reader with a cliffhanger (dang!!!).
The writing is brisk and crisp. As outrageous as some of the plot appears at times to be, it never feels contrived. The characters are well defined and are very relatable.
If the sequels are up to the caliber of this starter, it will be a great series.
I can hardly wait until my book budget allows me to get the succeeding volumes!
The mystery begins early in the book and has several twists and turns before leaving the reader with a cliffhanger (dang!!!).
The writing is brisk and crisp. As outrageous as some of the plot appears at times to be, it never feels contrived. The characters are well defined and are very relatable.
If the sequels are up to the caliber of this starter, it will be a great series.
July 19, 2020
Ehhh. I read this book because the author has the same name I do. I did not write this book, but I like to think I would have done a better job. Here's the plot. Sarah Boone, age 42, returns to her native Eagle Cove, in some unnamed New England state, for the funeral of her beloved Aunt Emily, who died in a car crash.
Emily leaves her building in Eagle Cove to Sarah. The building once contained Emily's Eats, a popular cafe, which Aunt Emily closed abruptly ten years ago. It still has two long term tenants. Shortly after the funeral, Sarah is going through the building to see what condition it was in, when the plumber tells her there may be a leaky pipe behind a brick wall in the basement. Sarah is a woman of action. She grabs a sledgehammer and pounds a hole in the wall, only to discover... a mummified human body. (This is not a spoiler. It's on the dust jacket.)
The sheriff, her old flame Matt Somebody, rapidly discovers the identity of the corpse in spite of the fact the man has had his fingerprints removed and his facial features eradicated. He is the husband of a woman who sought refuge with Emily ten years ago after claiming her husband assaulted her.
Then, in rapid succession come letters from beyond the grave from Aunt Emily, the return of Sarah's childhood best friend Claire, a harvest festival, a medium named Hialeah Truegood, (it should have been Toogood, as in too good to be true,) and a highly improbable plot twist explaining all this nonsense.
What makes this a one star book? The plot for one. I can't tell you more without giving it all away, but authors need to make their plots at least partially believable. If you are going to write a cozy mystery, write one. Don't drag in a bunch of stuff that doesn't belong there. While we are on the subject of cozy mysteries, tell us what state Eagle Cove is in, for God's sake.
There is also the characterisation. Sarah is repeatedly told by Matt and her mother that she needs to back off, and let the police investigate the murder. But there is no flashback to high school where Sarah discovered the dean of women embezzling the end of year trip money (That wasn't in the book. It's an example. ) It's as though Murder So Deep is book two or three not book one. We learn nothing about young Sarah or even middle aged Sarah that gives us the impression she has always been a dogged investigator or local nosy parker.
I don't really care for cozy mysteries, but there are good ones and bad ones. This is a bad one.
Emily leaves her building in Eagle Cove to Sarah. The building once contained Emily's Eats, a popular cafe, which Aunt Emily closed abruptly ten years ago. It still has two long term tenants. Shortly after the funeral, Sarah is going through the building to see what condition it was in, when the plumber tells her there may be a leaky pipe behind a brick wall in the basement. Sarah is a woman of action. She grabs a sledgehammer and pounds a hole in the wall, only to discover... a mummified human body. (This is not a spoiler. It's on the dust jacket.)
The sheriff, her old flame Matt Somebody, rapidly discovers the identity of the corpse in spite of the fact the man has had his fingerprints removed and his facial features eradicated. He is the husband of a woman who sought refuge with Emily ten years ago after claiming her husband assaulted her.
Then, in rapid succession come letters from beyond the grave from Aunt Emily, the return of Sarah's childhood best friend Claire, a harvest festival, a medium named Hialeah Truegood, (it should have been Toogood, as in too good to be true,) and a highly improbable plot twist explaining all this nonsense.
What makes this a one star book? The plot for one. I can't tell you more without giving it all away, but authors need to make their plots at least partially believable. If you are going to write a cozy mystery, write one. Don't drag in a bunch of stuff that doesn't belong there. While we are on the subject of cozy mysteries, tell us what state Eagle Cove is in, for God's sake.
There is also the characterisation. Sarah is repeatedly told by Matt and her mother that she needs to back off, and let the police investigate the murder. But there is no flashback to high school where Sarah discovered the dean of women embezzling the end of year trip money (That wasn't in the book. It's an example. ) It's as though Murder So Deep is book two or three not book one. We learn nothing about young Sarah or even middle aged Sarah that gives us the impression she has always been a dogged investigator or local nosy parker.
I don't really care for cozy mysteries, but there are good ones and bad ones. This is a bad one.
December 1, 2021
Overall, I enjoyed the introduction to this series and might read the second. I appreciate the author put twists on some conventions of the cozy genre. For me, some of these twists worked, while some of them didn't.
The author presents us with a classic cozy MC and does a good job of introducing the small-town setting and some interesting side characters. The voice of the MC is distinctive, and the overall writing style is strong and engaging. The friendship conflicts among Sarah, Janine, and Claire were interesting and an area that I'd like to read more about in the other books.
The twists that didn't work for me included things like the absence of viable suspects, the late introduction of the murderer, and that the MC stumbles into the climax/solution rather than using her skills to reach the conclusion (that's an expectation with an amateur sleuth MC). Without giving too much away, the author seemed to blend two genres, and the addition of this second genre is where I think the story deviates too far away from what a cozy is (to me).
The author presents us with a classic cozy MC and does a good job of introducing the small-town setting and some interesting side characters. The voice of the MC is distinctive, and the overall writing style is strong and engaging. The friendship conflicts among Sarah, Janine, and Claire were interesting and an area that I'd like to read more about in the other books.
The twists that didn't work for me included things like the absence of viable suspects, the late introduction of the murderer, and that the MC stumbles into the climax/solution rather than using her skills to reach the conclusion (that's an expectation with an amateur sleuth MC). Without giving too much away, the author seemed to blend two genres, and the addition of this second genre is where I think the story deviates too far away from what a cozy is (to me).
December 10, 2019
Lies, deception and a bricked up body!
A great start although I must admit it took a bit to get me hooked. Yes I know she found the body early on but even with that it took a bit of time. The plot is a simple one - who bricked up and killed the man in her basement? The characters took time to unfurl (maybe that's why it took a bit to get into the story) but they turned into flesh and blood as you carried on reading.
She's come back to get her inheritance ready for sale, a small apartment block and a cafe. What she didn't expect in a million years was to find a body (mummified) bricked up in the basement, an investigation into who and why, more deaths, a hidden USB, subtle clues and a fight for her life. Was her aunt murdered? Who is the killer? Are there more secrets on the horizon? Will the proposed sale be held?
A great start although I must admit it took a bit to get me hooked. Yes I know she found the body early on but even with that it took a bit of time. The plot is a simple one - who bricked up and killed the man in her basement? The characters took time to unfurl (maybe that's why it took a bit to get into the story) but they turned into flesh and blood as you carried on reading.
She's come back to get her inheritance ready for sale, a small apartment block and a cafe. What she didn't expect in a million years was to find a body (mummified) bricked up in the basement, an investigation into who and why, more deaths, a hidden USB, subtle clues and a fight for her life. Was her aunt murdered? Who is the killer? Are there more secrets on the horizon? Will the proposed sale be held?
May 29, 2021
This new series actually deserves way more than five stars. I want to rant and rave over how much I enjoyed this tale. It has so many surprises but, if I was to give samples, I would be spoiling your reading enjoyment.
There's a divorced, mother of one, who returns home to help her Mother and Sister bury a family member. She inherits the family business. Okay, you have read this plot before, well, I have. Continue reading. Suddenly, you need to clip your seatbelt on as this story takes off to paths you never dreamed was coming!
I have read over 3k cozies and I can tell you that I was so locked into this tale. The twists, turns, surprises, and... nope. You will have to trust me and read a terrific tale. Enjoy!
There's a divorced, mother of one, who returns home to help her Mother and Sister bury a family member. She inherits the family business. Okay, you have read this plot before, well, I have. Continue reading. Suddenly, you need to clip your seatbelt on as this story takes off to paths you never dreamed was coming!
I have read over 3k cozies and I can tell you that I was so locked into this tale. The twists, turns, surprises, and... nope. You will have to trust me and read a terrific tale. Enjoy!
February 3, 2025
This is the first in the series. The main character is Sarah. Sarah comes home after her aunt dies to check out the building that her aunt owned. While there she is told water pressure might be off because of a leak, so she takes a slug hammer to the basement wall and finds a body. From there things get crazy. She gets a letter from her deceased aunt that claims she is the one who did it all. Then there is another death and talk of spies and then things get really messed up. Can she figure this all out? can you ?
March 24, 2022
Fascinating read
Gripping story with a complex plat. First of a new series featuring mystery murder and a slash of romance. Chum want to get to know and a delightful cat. Recommended
Gripping story with a complex plat. First of a new series featuring mystery murder and a slash of romance. Chum want to get to know and a delightful cat. Recommended
April 3, 2022
I am so looking forward to reading this new series. I just finished reading her Heart Spring sweet Romance series. So good!
I really enjoyed reading about this sweet town set in New England. I hope this series is as heart warming.
I really enjoyed reading about this sweet town set in New England. I hope this series is as heart warming.
March 6, 2023
I am pleasantly surprised to have stumbled across this well done cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters and the depth of the intrigue. The ending was a surprise and hints of more surprises to come. I look forward to reading book two.
Clean.
Clean.
March 19, 2021
Very interesting plot twists. Not just another 'cozy mystery', but a much bigger picture. Looking forward to reading them all.
January 30, 2022
great,quick read!
I really enjoyed the twists and turns. Just when I thought the story was about to become predictable some twist or turn changed things!
I really enjoyed the twists and turns. Just when I thought the story was about to become predictable some twist or turn changed things!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews