A Conventional Murder

by Nathaniel Webb

It's a Daylight Savings Crime!Kit Morrison just wants to enjoy her hometown sci-fi convention, but things keep getting in the con drama, annoying fans, murder… Sci-fi/fantasy author Nathaniel Webb takes on the cozy in his mystery debut, featuring a hilarious amateur sleuth and a tricky, twisty mystery worthy of the classics.Art teacher, single mom, and geek girl Kit Morrison hasn’t been to her hometown sci-fi con in a decade. All she wants is to sell some art and catch up with old friends. But when a legendary fantasy author is murdered, Kit’s detective brother makes her his nerd sherpa. Kit’s happy to guide him through the weird world of con life—until he makes her favorite student his prime suspect. And then there are the threatening notes that keep appearing in her hotel room…Kit will confront crazy fans, navigate major drama, wait for the elevator, learn about industrial laundry machines, and try her best to get a croissant—and with luck, prove her student’s innocence before the convention ends!You’ll laugh—you’ll cheer—you’ll stay up late and fall asleep in a work meeting the next day. Come meet Kit, a sleuth like no other.

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2021

About the author

Nathaniel "Nat20" Webb is an author and musician from Maine. His writing includes the novels Bard City Blues and A Conventional Murder and the bestselling music biography Marillion in the 1980s. He is the editor of Wyngraf, the magazine of cozy fantasy.

As a lead guitarist, he toured and recorded with numerous acts including Grammy-nominated singers Beth Hart and Jana Mashonee and Colombian pop star Marre.

Nathaniel lives with his family under a massive pile of cats. He can be found on Twitter at @nat20w and Bluesky at @nat20.bsky.social, where he mostly talks about games, writing, and obscure 80s rock bands.

Reviews

[Javier A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book immediately pulled me in for quite the ride. Not a page on this sucker is dull nor overwritten, and on top of that it's written in a very specific voice that I felt matched the protagonist very well.

Despite this being a murder whodunnit it felt very inviting and bubbly for the most part, and although I've never been to a proper convention I felt this book had enough of the crowding, amicability, unpleasantness, and shenanigans I hear go on in these things.

The mystery itself was quite well constructed, and though I had pinned down the murderer somewhere along the first third of the book, I bodily fell for that red herring. It was only because the novella kept going long afterwards that I realized that I might not have been mistaken.

Give this one a chance if you're looking for something heartfelt, cozy, and less tense than your average whodunnit.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every spring I go to a tabletop gaming convention in New Hampshire that happens the weekend of daylight saving time, and I've long thought that a murder at the convention around the time of the clocks resetting would be a great plot for a mystery book. When I picked up this book, it was because I'd just read and loved the author's cozy fantasy Bard City Blues, and thought a fantasy convention murder mystery sounded like a fun read. When it also happened the night of daylight saving time, I couldn't believe it. But there you have it, another bit of anecdotal evidence that there's no such thing as a new thought.