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Rooftop Garden Cozy Mysteries #2
Murder Sets the Stage
Nothing puts a damper on the holiday spirit…
Quite like a murder.
It’s holiday festival time in picturesque Blue Valley, Tennessee, which means there’ll be plenty of fun, and an onslaught of tourists coming to town. This year, Paper Owl owner, and amateur sleuth, Alice Maguire, is helping out with organizing the Hometown Holidays Festival.
The festival features a week chock full of activities, beginning with the Bowl Full of Jelly 5k Fun Run, and leading into the Mistletoe Market, the Winter Wonderland, and the annual Tinsel Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol.
Main Street is decorated to the nines, and the rooftop garden that Alice shares with her fellow sleuthers is cozier than ever, with the addition of Owen's new fire ring. Franny will be whipping up plenty of hot chocolate, and Alice's budding romance with Luke Evans is going smoothly.
Life is good in the quaint little town, and it's shaping up to be a perfectly wonderful holiday, but when a body is discovered at the 5K, it’ll be up to Alice, Owen, and Franny to make sure that Blue Valley’s Hometown Holidays Festival gets back on track—and that means they’ll have to catch a murderer.
Will they catch the killer and save the festival?
Find out in this exciting holiday Cozy Mystery!
Quite like a murder.
It’s holiday festival time in picturesque Blue Valley, Tennessee, which means there’ll be plenty of fun, and an onslaught of tourists coming to town. This year, Paper Owl owner, and amateur sleuth, Alice Maguire, is helping out with organizing the Hometown Holidays Festival.
The festival features a week chock full of activities, beginning with the Bowl Full of Jelly 5k Fun Run, and leading into the Mistletoe Market, the Winter Wonderland, and the annual Tinsel Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol.
Main Street is decorated to the nines, and the rooftop garden that Alice shares with her fellow sleuthers is cozier than ever, with the addition of Owen's new fire ring. Franny will be whipping up plenty of hot chocolate, and Alice's budding romance with Luke Evans is going smoothly.
Life is good in the quaint little town, and it's shaping up to be a perfectly wonderful holiday, but when a body is discovered at the 5K, it’ll be up to Alice, Owen, and Franny to make sure that Blue Valley’s Hometown Holidays Festival gets back on track—and that means they’ll have to catch a murderer.
Will they catch the killer and save the festival?
Find out in this exciting holiday Cozy Mystery!
168 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 29, 2020
116 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
June 3, 2021
Ein schöner Wohlfühlkrimi mit einer tollen Atmosphäre und sehr sympathischen Figuren. Die Geschichte spielt zur Weihnachtszeit und bringt diese ganz besondere Stimmung auch sehr gut rüber - trotz Mordfall.
Ich mag diese Cozy-Crime-Geschichten, die zwar auch durchaus spannend sind, aber mehr auf die Atmosphäre und Stimmung setzen. Man fühlt sich einfach wohl beim Lesen und kann wunderbar abschalten!
Und was auch sehr schön ist - für ungeübte Englisch-Leser wie mich, scheint mir diese Reihe ideal. :-)
Ich mag diese Cozy-Crime-Geschichten, die zwar auch durchaus spannend sind, aber mehr auf die Atmosphäre und Stimmung setzen. Man fühlt sich einfach wohl beim Lesen und kann wunderbar abschalten!
Und was auch sehr schön ist - für ungeübte Englisch-Leser wie mich, scheint mir diese Reihe ideal. :-)
September 26, 2020
Murder Sets the Stage by Thea Cambert was another engaging cozy mystery in this series. I am really enjoying my visit in Blue Valley with Alice, Franny, Owen, Ben and Luke. The plot moved swiftly and the descriptive writing made me feel like I was in Blue Valley experiencing the Christmas holiday.
December 5, 2023
Veloce lettura con un cast di personaggi gradevoli. Carina l'idea di un giardino sul tetto dove si ritrovano la sera.
January 30, 2023
Holiday Festival Murder
Holiday Festivals are always a fun and seasonal thing that many people enjoy. Especially those that have activities planned throughout. But murder comes to the festival in one of the town events that so many join up to support and partake on.
The round up of suspects was definitely a doozy! I absolutely lobe this small town vibe and the hygge attached with all of the shops, and people surrounding it.
Holiday Festivals are always a fun and seasonal thing that many people enjoy. Especially those that have activities planned throughout. But murder comes to the festival in one of the town events that so many join up to support and partake on.
The round up of suspects was definitely a doozy! I absolutely lobe this small town vibe and the hygge attached with all of the shops, and people surrounding it.
August 8, 2020
This is a fabulous read of the second book in this series. The author is so descriptive of the events at the festival and made me wish I was there. Alice, Frankie and Owen work together to help Luke and Ben solve a murder. Everyone seems to be in their element!
April 10, 2022
Alice Maguire and her friends are preparing things for the Hometown Holidays Festival in small town Blue Valley, Tennessee. There's a new 5K race that's going to take place, and the person who is going to direct their own version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ash, is ready and raring to go. But not everyone is happy about his changes. A local named Chester is angry because his Ebenezer Scrooge has been scratched entirely from the show, and it's been changed to a modern version about an alcoholic. But Ash seems to have made other enemies in town, and Alice is about to find out who they are when Ash's body is found during the race.
Now with Chester being suspected of murdering the man, she knows he couldn't have done it, but who did? With her friends Franny and Owen on board, they want to investigate and find out who had the biggest motive to get rid of the demanding director...
This is the second book in the series, and I enjoyed it quite as much as the first. This isn't high art, nor is it supposed to be. It's a book to be read and enjoyed, and I did just that. It takes place at the Christmas holiday, and even though we are well past the season, nothing says we can't visit it now and then and I am glad I did.
I enjoy the banter between the characters, and the fact that the romances aren't getting in the way of the murder mystery. While it was fairly easy to decipher who the guilty party was (I read a lot of mysteries, as I've stated often enough) it was still fun to read the story and watch how Alice came to the same conclusion.
Her relationships with her friends is warming, and I like the fact that her brother Ben doesn't chide her for getting involved, because, after all, Alice doesn't knowingly walk into situations she shouldn't. It's a story that can be read in a couple of hours, and it's relaxing and enjoyable.
When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it's not so much a surprise as satisfying for the conclusion, and the motive for the murder is, of course, one that is as old as time itself. After all, there are only so many reasons for murder, right? But I think the writing is very good, and the author has given a story that will entertain, which is the reason for books anyway. Recommended.
https://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/202...
Now with Chester being suspected of murdering the man, she knows he couldn't have done it, but who did? With her friends Franny and Owen on board, they want to investigate and find out who had the biggest motive to get rid of the demanding director...
This is the second book in the series, and I enjoyed it quite as much as the first. This isn't high art, nor is it supposed to be. It's a book to be read and enjoyed, and I did just that. It takes place at the Christmas holiday, and even though we are well past the season, nothing says we can't visit it now and then and I am glad I did.
I enjoy the banter between the characters, and the fact that the romances aren't getting in the way of the murder mystery. While it was fairly easy to decipher who the guilty party was (I read a lot of mysteries, as I've stated often enough) it was still fun to read the story and watch how Alice came to the same conclusion.
Her relationships with her friends is warming, and I like the fact that her brother Ben doesn't chide her for getting involved, because, after all, Alice doesn't knowingly walk into situations she shouldn't. It's a story that can be read in a couple of hours, and it's relaxing and enjoyable.
When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it's not so much a surprise as satisfying for the conclusion, and the motive for the murder is, of course, one that is as old as time itself. After all, there are only so many reasons for murder, right? But I think the writing is very good, and the author has given a story that will entertain, which is the reason for books anyway. Recommended.
https://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/202...
January 13, 2021
Theatre drama deadly!!!!
I love this series!!!!
Alice and the gang are great, i feel like i am right there with them on their rooftop looking down at Main street shoppers.
But when they have their annual holiday festivities with the traditional play every year things get changed for the worst and alot of people don't like it and it would be the cause from an obnoxious, self-centered, split personality guy that treats women like dirt, is the new director of the changed play and one of so many suspects that Alice and the gang and the police detectives have to go through. When they 5k run is ruined by finding the most unlikable guy in town in the park.
You have to read for details. You will LOVE it!!!!
Get your hot drink, a warm blanket, curl up in your comfy chair or on your couch and have a great read.
I love this series!!!!
Alice and the gang are great, i feel like i am right there with them on their rooftop looking down at Main street shoppers.
But when they have their annual holiday festivities with the traditional play every year things get changed for the worst and alot of people don't like it and it would be the cause from an obnoxious, self-centered, split personality guy that treats women like dirt, is the new director of the changed play and one of so many suspects that Alice and the gang and the police detectives have to go through. When they 5k run is ruined by finding the most unlikable guy in town in the park.
You have to read for details. You will LOVE it!!!!
Get your hot drink, a warm blanket, curl up in your comfy chair or on your couch and have a great read.
August 14, 2020
Oh this was such a fun mystery set at Christmastime! It wasn't hard to picture this cute little town and all its decorations. I love these now-five friends. Alice's little group of three grew to five when she started seeing Luke, and her bestie Franny started dating Ben. I enjoy it so much when they discuss the case as a peer group, and I appreciate that they all get along with no conflict. The conflict is as it should be (imho anyway lol), in the form of the murder case itself and which person in town might be guilty, and not in the form of relationship crises.
The showdown was quick but excellent in how Alice handled herself. It was so sweet how the friends then celebrated Luke's official move to the valley. I'll definitely keep reading this series as these books become available!
The showdown was quick but excellent in how Alice handled herself. It was so sweet how the friends then celebrated Luke's official move to the valley. I'll definitely keep reading this series as these books become available!
August 15, 2020
Another great book in this new series!! If it's possible, this second book
is even better than the first. With one ooey, gooey, icky end to the 5k run -
obsticle course, Alice, Owen and Franny set out. As they get closer to the end, which is a
huge bowl of jello that all runners have to go through, there are a lot of
people in distress and standing around. Come to find out the producer of the
local Christmas Show, a show which almost everyone in town hates, is found dead
in the jello. Once again in charge of the festival and to keep things going
as smoothly as possible, Alice and her friends must help solve the murder.
This is turning out to be one of my very favorite new authors!
is even better than the first. With one ooey, gooey, icky end to the 5k run -
obsticle course, Alice, Owen and Franny set out. As they get closer to the end, which is a
huge bowl of jello that all runners have to go through, there are a lot of
people in distress and standing around. Come to find out the producer of the
local Christmas Show, a show which almost everyone in town hates, is found dead
in the jello. Once again in charge of the festival and to keep things going
as smoothly as possible, Alice and her friends must help solve the murder.
This is turning out to be one of my very favorite new authors!
January 15, 2022
Such a great read for the holidays. The author’s descriptive writing makes it so simple to envision the small little town all decorated for Christmas. I felt like I could really visualize the holiday charm the town offered while reading.
Something I truly love about Thea Cambert’s writing (aside from how descriptive it is) is the characters she has created in this series. I would definitely want to hangout with Alice, Owen, and Franny.
The mystery was also well written and while I thought I had the murderer figured out a couple times, it wasn’t until closer to the end that I truly knew who it would be.
An easy 5 stars for the second book in Thea Cambert’s Rooftop Garden series. It is everything I want from a cozy mystery.
Something I truly love about Thea Cambert’s writing (aside from how descriptive it is) is the characters she has created in this series. I would definitely want to hangout with Alice, Owen, and Franny.
The mystery was also well written and while I thought I had the murderer figured out a couple times, it wasn’t until closer to the end that I truly knew who it would be.
An easy 5 stars for the second book in Thea Cambert’s Rooftop Garden series. It is everything I want from a cozy mystery.
August 8, 2020
This second book in the series is every bit as good as the first. The mystery is well plotted and the story is peopled with characters that would be fun to know.
The winter festival is in full swing and the town is the perfect place to celebrate the beginning of the holidays. When the director of the annual Dickinson play is found dead the police along with some local citizens pull out all stops to find the murderer.
The winter festival is in full swing and the town is the perfect place to celebrate the beginning of the holidays. When the director of the annual Dickinson play is found dead the police along with some local citizens pull out all stops to find the murderer.
August 16, 2021
An enjoyable cozy mystery. Alice, Franny, and Owen find clues to help solve the murder of the drama teacher. There are several suspects and motives but I had the killer figured out before the reveal. I like the fact that the police are competent in this series. I also like the fact that there was no running hot and cold in the romance department. Alice & Luke and Franny & Ben got together in the first book instead of dragging it out. Looking forward to the next book.
February 1, 2025
Murder Sets the Stage Book 2 of Rooftop Garden Cozy Mysteries
Another great book in the lives of these three friends who happen to share a rooftop garden.A Christmas play is offered each year on the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in this small town. This time the director is changing the Christmas story and is killed. As the holiday festival draws to a close will the real killer be identified?
Another great book in the lives of these three friends who happen to share a rooftop garden.A Christmas play is offered each year on the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in this small town. This time the director is changing the Christmas story and is killed. As the holiday festival draws to a close will the real killer be identified?
August 23, 2020
Very enjoyable. it's the holidays everything is decorated, there will be a race with obstacles and a Christmas play however some have different ideas about it, Alice and her friends try to keep things running smoothly when there's a Murder however they decide to solve it of course. I received this as an ARC and voluntarily choose to reveiw.
August 28, 2020
The Show Must Go On
Another great story about the the three friends who share some wonderful traditions as a family. The festival was very exciting and all the candles sounded like heaven with all those scented smells. The run sounds amazing with all the holiday themed obstacles. Looking forward to seeing what they do for an encore!! 😊😊😊
Another great story about the the three friends who share some wonderful traditions as a family. The festival was very exciting and all the candles sounded like heaven with all those scented smells. The run sounds amazing with all the holiday themed obstacles. Looking forward to seeing what they do for an encore!! 😊😊😊
November 25, 2024
This was better than I thought it was gonna be, even for such a short cozy mystery! This is the second book I've read by Thea Cambert, and this little book was really packed. The story was well-written, well-paced, and entertaining. Worth the time to read. I'm hoping my library obtains other books written by this author.
July 31, 2020
Kindle Copy for Review
Holiday season in the air and that means a production of A Christmas Carol. The town will have its own share of ghosts when a murder takes place.
Watch as the gang come together to solve the case as they keep the town safe. A nice Christmas cozy read.
Holiday season in the air and that means a production of A Christmas Carol. The town will have its own share of ghosts when a murder takes place.
Watch as the gang come together to solve the case as they keep the town safe. A nice Christmas cozy read.
August 1, 2020
A great second book in the series
This was a good book. I would love to have a rooftop terrace and friends to sit and laugh with on it. Please keep writing this series. I love ❤️ it
This was a good book. I would love to have a rooftop terrace and friends to sit and laugh with on it. Please keep writing this series. I love ❤️ it
August 3, 2020
Love love love this book!!!
I loved book1. But now I love book 2 even more. I could move into the town with no problem. Especially at Christmas. The mystery was prefect and it kept me guessing until the end.
I loved book1. But now I love book 2 even more. I could move into the town with no problem. Especially at Christmas. The mystery was prefect and it kept me guessing until the end.
August 7, 2020
Enjoyable
This is book 2 in this new series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a quick, fun read and the characters are developing nicely. I'm excited to see where this series goes from here.
This is book 2 in this new series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a quick, fun read and the characters are developing nicely. I'm excited to see where this series goes from here.
August 15, 2020
Enjoyed it very much
I was as sure I knew who the killer was but the was always this nagging feeling that it was someone else but I couldn't figure out their motive. It turned out to be that person. Looking forward to many more adventures from this group.
I was as sure I knew who the killer was but the was always this nagging feeling that it was someone else but I couldn't figure out their motive. It turned out to be that person. Looking forward to many more adventures from this group.
October 2, 2021
Thea is a gem of an author that I am so happy I found. This is her second series I am reading and she does not disappoint. Story structure and mechanics are solid and I love these characters and how her writing places me right there with them.
May 31, 2022
The play's the thing!
Another fine installment in the series. More quirky characters. Fast moving. Lots of humor and romance. And a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. On to the next book!
Another fine installment in the series. More quirky characters. Fast moving. Lots of humor and romance. And a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. On to the next book!
November 26, 2024
Just like the first book, it is vivid in its descriptions of the town and homes.
This time around the focus was a bit heavier on the murder, which is a good thing.
Quick and charming, you can't really go wrong with a cozy book like this.
This time around the focus was a bit heavier on the murder, which is a good thing.
Quick and charming, you can't really go wrong with a cozy book like this.
August 1, 2020
Another winner
This series just keeps getting better. So many wonderful characters. A lovely setting. Would love to visit this town with all their festivies.
This series just keeps getting better. So many wonderful characters. A lovely setting. Would love to visit this town with all their festivies.
August 4, 2020
Great story
This is a great story in the Rooftop Garden series by Thea Cambert. I can't wait for the next book.
This is a great story in the Rooftop Garden series by Thea Cambert. I can't wait for the next book.
August 16, 2020
Really enjoying this new series. I can’t wait for more. Well written great characters & very nice setting. A place I’d like to visit often.
September 23, 2020
Another 5 star read
Once again Thea Cambert doesn't disappoint. Another visit to Alice and friends, getting to know them more with a murder thrown in for good measure.
Once again Thea Cambert doesn't disappoint. Another visit to Alice and friends, getting to know them more with a murder thrown in for good measure.
January 3, 2021
Delightful!
Alice and her friends are back again with the holiday festival and a murder to solve. It was a fun read with great writing and a good mystery.
Alice and her friends are back again with the holiday festival and a murder to solve. It was a fun read with great writing and a good mystery.
February 25, 2021
Enjoyed it
The more of this series I read I want to go visit Blue Valley. I want the gang to be my friends, I love this series
The more of this series I read I want to go visit Blue Valley. I want the gang to be my friends, I love this series
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews