Murder in Cottonwood Springs (Cottonwood Springs #1) by Dianne Harman

Murder in Cottonwood Springs (Cottonwood Springs #1) Reviews

• 
  Yvonne

  Book editor, Brigid Barnes, is moving back to her hometown of Cottonwood Springs, Colorado. Her life in Los Angeles is pretty much over when her marriage ends and so does her job at a publishing company. She figures Cottonwood Springs would be a perfect place to start over since her sister and friends still live there.
  
  She purchases a new chalet home, which comes with a big Newfoundland dog named Jett. Things really become interesting when her only neighbor welcomes her to the area. Linc Olson is handsome, to say the least. Plus, he brings wine. Things are definitely looking up for Brigid.
  
  Then, tragedy strikes when one of her best friends is murdered. She’s determined to find out who would have done such a horrible thing. With the help of Linc and Jett, she is shocked to find out that her friend had so many enemies.
  
  I’ve been wanting to read this author for a long time. She has several different cozy mystery series available and they all look so good. I decided to start off with the Cottonwood Springs series. I’m so glad I did.
  
  I liked Brigid and Linc (and Jett, her dog!) right from the start. Their potential romance is sweet, but it’s also their friendship - they just met and yet they feel like they can be best friends quickly. I would have liked to see more of Brigid’s sister Fiona. It would be nice to delve into their relationship. For now, it feels like they are casual acquaintances instead of sisters.
  
  The murder takes place in the prologue. That wouldn’t be a problem for me except there is no indication that Chapter One takes place a few days before the prologue. So, seeing the victim very much alive in the first chapter was a bit jarring. Once I got past that, I was hooked.
  
  There were several different possibilities of who the culprit could be. I realized it about halfway through the book, but I really wasn’t sure until closer to the end. I had fun piecing this murder together along with Brigid.
  
  It’s a quick read with interesting characters and the perfect cozy setting. I’m looking forward to a return visit to Cottonwood Springs to catch up with Brigid and her friends.
• 
  Kris

  I really enjoy Dianne's books. They are easy to read or listen too. Murder is not a light topic, but her books to bring you down with too much depressing a mood. Stories are always fun and pull together for an enjoyable story time. I listened to this one. The narrator did a great job, kept it interesting and great with the characters. I'll be picking up another one of Dianne's books again real soon.
• 
  Thelma and Louise Book Blog

  4 Star review Murder In Cottonwood Springs (Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery #1) by Dianne Harman
  
  Audio Review:
  
  Dianne Harman is a relatively new author to me whilst the narrator Kasey Logan is new to me.
  
  I enjoyed the story, however I struggled with the narration at times. I loved stories that are set in small towns where everyone seems to know everyone and their business. This was an entertaining cozy mystery.
  Brigid Barnes has returned to Cottonwood Springs, Colorado and is shocked when one of her good friends is murdered. There was murder and humour and it was fun to follow the clues and trying to solve the mystery before it was resolved.
• 
  Michele

  This is book 1 in a brand new series by Dianne Harman! FYI-although all the recipes are really tempting me--there is a cookie recipe which has this cookie monster drooling! Recipes can be found at the end of the novel.
  
  Brigid moved back to her hometown of Cottonwood Springs to be near her sister who owned a bookstore there. Besides--she was at loose ends--a divorce-then the publishing company where she had been an editor went bankrupt and closed. Editing can be done anywhere there is a computer-and she was allowed to keep the authors she worked with so------She packed up her belongings and headed home. The house she purchased had a big Newfoundland dog. The owners could not take him with them--would Brigid like to keep him? She agreed--the dog was a big furry love bug!! Her closest neighbor came to visit and welcome her to the neighborhood--he was a hunk--She started to reacquaint herself with all the old friends who either still lived there or had moved back. She also inadvertently invited one of the authors to come and stay with her for a bit--the author had writer's block--Brigid hoped that a change of scenery would help her.
  
  Brigid's sister's bookstore was a welcoming type place as was her sister. Of course there was a book club held there. Brigid's best friend who owned a B&B always attended. The first book club meeting Brigid attended-her BFF was late-even though she was bringing the refreshments. Not like her at all! Brigid and another of the women went to see if something was wrong---they found her dead-murdered--on her kitchen floor!
  
  Brigid was asked if she would help find the killer--she said yes-to the consternation of her friendly next door neighbor. There really were an awful lot of suspects--but most of them had air tight alibis.
  
  So, who in this small town had committed murder and why?
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book with it's quirky small town inhabitants--and as for that big furry Newfoundland--LOVE.
  
  I am eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.
  
• 
  Sandra Lopez

  Brigid was glad to have a new home in her hometown of Cottonwood Springs, CO. Meanwhile, two adulterers were thinking how convenient it would be if the person standing in their way—the wife—were dead.
  As you read through the simple and rather engaging narrative, you see the potential suspects piling up. Several people had it in for Lucy. They couldn’t wait to get their revenge on her. The story does take a while as it goes around giving out all the potential suspects BEFORE the murder even happens. Meanwhile, we’re getting into Brigid’s possible new romance situation with her new neighbor. Like I said, it was slow. It kind of made me wonder when we would get to the dead body already. When was that going to happen? Don’t get me wrong, it was still a nice read. Still, someone was going to kill Lucy, right?
  
  Finally, the dead body was discovered at the 50% mark. It was kind of a long time for the body to show up, but, fortunately, the read was short and light, which made it easier to get through. It was interesting because usually we get the list of suspects AFTER the murder, but here we get it way before so it gets our minds speculating right off the bat. Once Brigid starts investigating, it’s really just a process of elimination.
  
  What makes it a 3-star read was all the wasted narrative on trivialities. Did we really need a whole chapter on Brigid at the shooting range and learning how to shoot a gun? No, we didn’t. Another thing that bugged me was that the story too often relayed the same info—what readers already knew—over and over again.
  
  This was almost a 4-star read, but it wasn’t quite there for me. It was a decent and mild mystery. I might check out the rest of the books in the series...or I might not.
  
• 
  Julie Howard

  I enjoyed this book. It starts with the murder and then goes back in time,showing you what happened and why it lead to the murder. This worked well once you worked out and was going on and it does take a while for the murder to happen but once it does it picks up and I liked the investigation. The characters are like able and I have met them before in a later book, so I can safely say you can enjoy this series in any order, as they are stand alone books.
  Brigid is an editor for a publishing company and when it and her marriage fails she decides she wants to move back to her home town where her family and friends are. This includes her best friend Lucy and sister to the sheriff but when Lucy is late for a book club meeting one where she is bring in the snacks, Brigid goes to find out why. Instead of finding a cooking disaster that is holding up, she finds her dead on the kitchen floor. Who would want to kill Lucy? The Sheriff being her brother is to close the victim and it is left to his deputy to investigate. Knowing Brigid knows all the suspects and thinks they might be more willing to talk to her more her arms for her help. The problem is the suspect list soon diminishes as each person from the cheating husband to the drug selling employee have alibi's. Was Lucy's death less about her more revenge against her brother. Brigid will have to work it out if she hopes to catch her friends killer.
  I liked the narrator, she has quite a sweet voice that she puts to good use with the characters voices.
  I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
• 
  Tara Brown

  **This review is for the audiobook on Audible.**
  
  Murder in Cottonwood Springs by Dianne Harman, narrated by Kasey Logan, is Book 1 in the Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery series. I love Dianne Harman's books (especially her audiobooks!), so I was really excited to see a new one available on Audible. Readers who prefer a light and engaging "whodunnit" with a small-town feel are sure to enjoy this audiobook and series. Like all of Harman's books, the main character feels like a friend you've known your whole life. I definitely plan to continue with the series; I hope more audiobooks are released!! :-)
  
  Narrator Kasey Logan did a nice job, but I felt she didn't do the book justice. I hate having to say that. :-( While her sweet sounding voice made for easy listening, I felt like she was just reading words on a page, rather than bringing it to life, although she did use a variety of voices...maybe her voices were too kind and too sweet to feel realistic enough for me. This is just my personal opinion. Either way, she was consistent throughout, and her pace and volume were great.
  
  I give Murder in Cottonwood Springs: A Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery, Book 1 by Dianne Harman, narrated by Kasey Logan an overall 4/5 stars. I'm looking forward to the next in series, and I recommend this book to those who enjoy clean mysteries, small-town murder, humor, and dogs (of course!!).
  
  Thank you for reading my review. I hope it was helpful. Happy listening! :-)
• 
  George

  Murder in Cottonwood Springs, by Dianne Harman.
  A neat little murder mystery with three suspicious potential killers who are weeded out by some straightforward sleuthing by the heroine, Brigid Barnes, a book editor reeling from a tough divorce and the collapse of her publishing company.. It's combined with the beginnings of a romance between Brigid and Linc Olson, a freelance money manager and her neighbor. Right from the start there are some wonderful scenes with her constant companion, a two-year-old Newfoundland guard dog named Jett.
  
  The characters that make up her consort in Cottonwood--Lucy, owner of a B&B, Rich, the Sheriff and Lucy's brother, Corey the Deputy Sheriff, her sister Fiona, owner of a retail bookstore cum second hand book shop--are so clearly drawn you slip right into the ambiance of the town without ever realizing it.
  
  A simple but pleasing read from an author who has written many other mysteries.
  
  
  
• 
  Stacy

  This was my Kindle owners loan for the month of December, but it took me a while to read with the holidays. One one hand, this was a nice little cozy. On the other hand, I'm almost positive that I found this one by browsing through the Christian/religious section on Amazon. This book was in no way faith-based. It was pretty clean, just a couple of off-handed references to sex, spending the night, drugs, etc and the description of the murder was almost non-existent, so very clean in the cozy category. But it had no elements of faith or Christianity so I would in no way categorize this as "Christian fiction". Still, if I'm looking for another cozy mystery to read, I would probably try the next one in this series. I just prefer to read Christian fiction.
• 
  Genevieve

  Brigid moved back to Cottonwood Springs to be with friends and family when her marriage and her publishing company both ended. When her best friend's murdered, she's determined to find the killer.
  
  This is a great new series from Dianne Harman and one I couldn't put down. Brigid is a great character and you will immediately like her and her new love interest her neighbor seems a great guy who looks out for her. The other characters weren't really developed well enough to know if you will like them.
  My one complaint too me it was totally crazy that the Sheriff asked her to look into the murder because he remembered back in school she was observant.
  A great read and I am looking forward to the next book.
• 
  Erin Lewis

  4 Star review Murder In Cottonwood Springs (Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery #1) by Dianne Harman
  
  Audio Review:
  
  Dianne Harman is a relatively new author to me whilst the narrator Kasey Logan is new to me.
  
  I enjoyed the story, however I struggled with the narration at times. I loved stories that are set in small towns where everyone seems to know everyone and their business. This was an entertaining cozy mystery.
  Brigid Barnes has returned to Cottonwood Springs, Colorado and is shocked when one of her good friends is murdered. There was murder and humour and it was fun to follow the clues and trying to solve the mystery before it was resolved.
• 
  Kathy jenkins

  I so wanted to enjoy this series. Great premise, promising storyline, intriguing start with the murder up front then revealing who could have done it with the introduction of the characters in the story but full of the most cliched lines. The book read like an 8th grader’s first attempt at writing. What’s even nuttier is one of the main characters is a book editor and her sister own a bookstore. As the characters were revealed and their dark sides quickly exposed, I found myself wincing every time. Add the poor writing skills to a growing sense of discomfort, I decided to end my misery and let this series go. Too many good books out there to spend time reading poorly written ones. Too bad.
• 
  Michele Richardson

  This is the first book of Dianne Harman’s that I’ve read/ listened to. I actually listened and enjoyed the story, but struggled at times with the narration. Something about the dialect or inflection, I don’t know. I will read the print version, maybe I’ll grt a better feel for the characters. I hadn’t read a cozy mystery in a while and this was a good one to get back into the genre with. I liked how she set several people up to be suspects, it was easy to figure out who did it. The killer’s Name was never mentioned when the killer was talked about being a rural, small area someone would have remembered the name. I will be reading more of this author.
• 
  Lady Galaxy

  It started out with a prologue showing a character murdered. Then the first chapter was in the same town but never mentioned the murdered woman or if the new character had any relationship with the murdered woman. Then a neighbor comes over with a bottle of wine and she invites him inside to drink it with her? She doesn't even know the man!
  
  I got impatient waiting to get back to the teaser in the prologue, so I skipped to the end chapters and found out all I needed to know. I saw no need to go back and read the middle.
  
  The dialect of one of the law enforcement characters was off putting as well. The use of dialect should add to the plot, not detract from it.
• 
  Lee

  This is the first book of the third series I am reading by this author. Our main character is Bridig, she is like the other characters in the other books, she has a sixth sense for seeing and understanding things and figuring things out. This book didn’t have any twisted or turns, but it was still a good book and I will definitely read the next book in the series hoping there will be lots of twists and turns. But what I don’t want is for all these books in these series to repeat themselves. I think Ms Harman is a great writer with a good imagination.
• 
  Gena - My Book Reviews for You

  Great cozy mystery set in a small town. I live Dianne’s characters and how they always seem to get themselves involved in some kind of murder mystery. Brigid has moved back to Cottonwood Springs both to be near family and friends and to get away from her busy life in Los Angeles. Soon she has a newly adopted big dog and a possible romance with a neighbor. But she certainly doesn’t expect a murder to happen. There are so many people who could be the murderer. And Brigid is going to do some investigating of her own.
• 
  Roger

  Murder in Cottonwood Springs (Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery #1), my seventh read/listen from author Dianne Harman and my second read in the highly enjoyable Cottonwood Springs Cozy Mystery series. Quieter in tone than Harman's other writing, none the less enjoyable. I was given an Audible copy of this book & am voluntarily reviewing it. Kasey Logan's quiet narration adds to an excellent book's enjoyment. I look forward to reading more in this series & from this author. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018)
• 
  Tess Ailshire

  This was different from the normal cozy mystery in that the suspects are presented up front, each with the explanation for a motive, before the investigation of the murder begins (but after it occurs). A bit confusing going from Chapter 1 to the next few, but nothing an astute reader can't wrap his brain around.
  
  Much of the background, though, is presented through expository paragraphs masquerading as dialog, and is thus extremely awkward. It is not truly conceivable people would have these conversations as they're presented. They clarify the story, but at the expense of good writing.
• 
  Lisa

  I loved how this story started out with telling of someone’s death then the rest of it was of when they were alive and the things that led up to their death. Everyone we meet had a reason to want the person dead. I was guessing all the way to the end! This author always grabs my attention straight away and doesn’t let go. I didn’t want to put it down until the end.
• 
  Lorna Corcoran

  While I really enjoyed this book, I didn't like that the murder of the 1st character in the book was in the prologue and we had to wait until the middle of the book for the body to be found while suspecting everyone from the beginning. Other than that if I had of skipped the prologue I loved the rest of the book.
• 
  Cheryl

  This is the first in the series. The main character is Brigid who moves back home after her divorce and is a book editor. She ends up helping the deputy solve the murder of her friend Lucy. The sheriff can't do anything as Lucy was his sister. They both the deputy and Brigid are new to this but between them they have to figure this out. Can they do it ?