Bloody Mary, Bloody Murder

Kalliope Brooks Mysteries #1

by Tanya Westlake

Welcome to Owhiro, Florida – a quaint seaside village and currently the scene of a bizarre unsolved murder.

Local bartender Kalliope Brooks was horrified to find the victim’s body hidden in her own car, and now she can’t seem to tear herself away from the case – much to the alarm of her best friend, Tess, her adoring father, and the lead detective on the case.

Can she uncover the murderer shaking up her charming little hometown before someone else is killed?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Contemporary, Ebooks, Mystery Thriller, Cozy

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 2, 2022

Reviews

[Linda Langford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new author and new series to me. I really enjoyed the story. A good, complex mystery to try and unravel!

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

Bloody Mary, bloody murder, was a good mystery – – not a great mystery but good.

It was pretty accurate in the area of Tampa because I am very familiar with it and they did a great job with that area.

[Emmalynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay

[Suzen · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute; but too many time gaps. Very small town Florida. When a dead body is found in Kallie's car behind the bar where she works., Kallie gets scared and wants to get the murderer. To protect her, she gets moved from night shifts to day shifts, where she meets a cast of regulars who she wins over with her Bloody Mary recipes. She delves into the young woman's life, and the killer is not who you suspect or why.

[Maureen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Characters are so stock, ( one pretty young lady with a best friend and a dog)
Moving slowly with lots of useless information and then - the solution comes from nowhere! Add in some questionable police tactics, and, of course, the amateur sleuth has to have a burgeoning romance.

Strictly written by syllabus.

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a couple of things that were off on this book. She lives with her dad but it never says where here dad is when she is all alone in the house. Another thing was they are having a heat wave but getting served soup? Who eats soup during a heat wave? The characters need a little more detail.

[Julie Houser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bloody Mary, Bloody Murder by Tanya Westlake is a mystery about a young bartender who finds a dead body in her car as she leaves work one night. She ends up having to solve the murder herself. A cute read.

[Cidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kalliope Brooks is a bartender at the Lazy Gecko in Florida, she works the night shift. She's heading home and walking towards her car which is parked in a dark spot of the carpark and discovers her door is unlocked, she is surprised she didn't lock it (so am I), and whilst she is pondering this and working the car out of the car park she looks back and notices a white hand in the footwell of the back seat. She gets out and finds that the white hand belongs to the body of a dead girl. She screams and the doormen come over and call the police. She is taken to the police station to give a statement and there is a bit of chemistry passing between Kallie and Morrison the police officer dealing with the body.

Kallie is irrepressible and sets off to find who killed Mary, a young heiress, and why, and with the aid of her best friend they set off searching for clues. I never like this bit in books when the main characters fly off to solve the problem, sometimes I think they get in the way of the story. However I wanted to see how the relationship between Kallie and Morrison develops! Nevertheless she is instrumental in finding our all the clues to find the murderer of the young heiress Mary, and then there is the satisfactory ending (to me) of a burgeoning relationship developing between Kallie and Morrison. Surely he has a first name, hang on I think it came up somewhere in the book, just can't remember where now.

[Pamela A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒊 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒛𝒚 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚!!

𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒌𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖! 𝑰𝒕 𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒃𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒛𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒈 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊 𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒈𝒔 𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔. 𝑭𝒖𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌!! 🥰🥰🥰

[Jan Stier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

A literary rollercoaster that left me both exhilarated and slightly miffed—curse those sneaky final breadcrumbs I spectacularly overlooked! The characters danced across the page with such magnetic charm that I'm now eagerly stalking the author's future works, desperate to uncover Kalli's next deliciously unpredictable adventure. This narrative? A sublime cocktail of intrigue that has me simultaneously applauding and plotting my revenge on its masterful misdirections.

[Alice Hazelbaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A confusing murder!

An interesting book I picked out to read, partly because I live in the Clearwater area described. Kallliope, works in a popular local bar, and finds a dead woman in her backseat after work one night! A number of unexpected twists keep the mystery and the murder investigation fresh and fascinating. Kallie works with the detective to follow up on clues, much to his displeasure! I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

[Sharon M. Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody Mary, Bloody Murder

The story begins with bartender, Kallie getting involved with a murder in her small town. The body was found in her car. Friends were investigated and a detective was suspecting her best friends. With that going forward Kallie decided to find the killer herself by involving the detective in her plans!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good cozy mystery set in contemporary Tampa FL area. Main character, Kallie, is a bartender at the Lucky Gecko who leaves work one night and finds a murdered body in her car. Because of the resulting nightmares it causes, she tries to find out the truth so she can go back to her previous normal life. First in a series.

[April Cothern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs work

I really enjoyed the story but the writer segways into little things rather abruptly. Maybe they are put there for future stories but it just seems a little unpolished. I'm definitely going to keep reading this series.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sweet

Kallie is so sweet & I would love to see a romance between her and Morrison. I can see myself reading more of Tanya Westlake's books! I love the way Kallie was able to solve this murder !

[Sandy Lowrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody Mary, Bloody Murder (Kalliope Brooks)

I liked this story, Cali really has good detective skills, and she was closer to the murderers the she thought. It was a great read with a cute ending.

[Penny Vogts · Rating 5 out of 5]

good mystery

Enjoyable read. Well written with interesting characters I’d like to read more about. The mystery plot was well developed and interesting to to try and figure out. I will definitely read more of this series.

[Doris Stillings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder

A young woman finds a dead body in the back seat of her car. Kallie works night shift in a bar, and found the body after her shift. She and her best friend Tess try to solve the crime. Really a good read.

[KATHLEEN TROTZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I all oops wow

I love cozy mysteries This is 1 of the better ones that I have read I love cozy mysteries. You have me stumped All the way And tell you revealed who The killer was Looking forward to reading more of your work This 1 I would give it a10 out of 10

[Lee Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cozy mystery is set in a small seaside town. It is a good mystery that kept me guessing for most of the book. It was well written and look forward to more in this series.

[Dena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light escapism reading.

[Ellen Gallant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

I read a lot of books on Kindle. Some I like, some not so much, but occasionally I find one I love and wish there was book 2. This one was one of those. Great story, characters and no typos 😉.

[Marge Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever Cozi Mystery

Bodies stuffed in cars and more questions than answers, and two very mistified detectives with very little clues to work with.

[Beverly Downing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody Good Fun

A fun,relaxing read from an author previously unknown to me. Great characters. I was writing a Hallmark mysteries series in my mind as I read it.

[Nancy Haddock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun

I got this book due to the setting, and I enjoyed it. Fun characters, well-paced action, and a solid ending. I plan to get the next book for sure!

[Katey Holland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in 1 day! I'll definitely read more from this author

[Bonnie Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A murder to Solve

This is the first cozy mystery by this author I have read. She really started off. With a bang or should I say Murder and kept you reading till the end

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book

Clean. Intelligent people. Did not have a clue who the murderer was. I will be read the rest of the series.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read!

East to read, good characters and didn’t see who the killer was until the end! Worth your time and money.

[Debra McEathron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow can't trust anyone

This was an interesting story about solving a murder. Kallie was getting ready to leave the bar she worked at when she noticed the body in her car.