| Title | : | Cozy Up To Death (The Cozy Up Series, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 260 |
| Publication | : | Published March 24, 2020 |
A gang of outlaws searching for retribution.
This is no time for cupcakes.
Today is Brody Steele’s first day as the new owner of The Red Herring, Pleasant Valley, Maine’s only mystery bookstore. The cute shop has a loyal customer base as well as an ornery cat.
Unfortunately, Brody doesn’t know the first thing about running a legitimate business, he doesn’t want to be in the small town, and he hates cats. On top of all that, he hasn’t read a book since high school.
When a cute woman walks into the store, he thinks his bad luck is about to change. But as she starts asking about the previous owner’s whereabouts, his safe new existence begins to unravel.
For Brody Steele is a man with a secret he must protect at all costs. The U.S. Government has invested a lot to keep it hidden, and his enemies will stop at nothing to expose him.
Does happiness or death await Brody in this charming seaside community?
If you like stories with a solid male lead, wonderfully odd characters, and a troublesome cat, then this book is for you.
Cozy Up To Death (The Cozy Up Series, #1) Reviews
-
I am giving this five stars because it was so totally entertaining and original. Defining its genre is difficult - I can only describe it as a cosy with attitude. It will certainly satisfy readers of any type of crime fiction.
The story begins with Brody Steele on his first day as the owner of the Red Herring bookstore. There is a cat who delights in knocking books off the shelves and lots of slightly quirky bookshop regulars. All very cosy so far, but it soon becomes apparent that Brody is not what he seems and there is plenty going on behind the scenes.
If you are like me and enjoy all types of mystery from cosy through to hard boiled then this is a book to read. The author uses aspects of both and pulls them together in a quite remarkable way. I am very happy to see that the series continues.
Thanks Col for your review which brought this series to my attention. -
Brody Steele is a man hiding out. He’s the new owner of a crime fiction bookshop in a small seaside town in Maine. The bookshop even comes with a cat, albeit it one with a surly attitude and a plethora of names. The only problem is Brody doesn’t read books and doesn’t like cats and he’s not even sure he likes small towns. However, once he realises the people are friendly, and he meets the very attractive young female mystery reader who regularly visits the shop he decides he might just be able to make a new life here, as long as he is not found by those looking for him.
When Brody learns that the previous owner of the bookshop is missing, he can’t help investigating what happened to her. He also knows something is amiss with the new Italian restaurant in town and finds himself drawing unwanted attention. A very entertaining, not so cosy mystery with an interesting male MC, some quirky locals, some out of towners with violence in mind and a very feisty cat. -
Beau Smith, a former gang member, and a biker with a violent past gets a new start in the witness protection program as the new owner of The Red Herring, a crime fiction book store in Pleasant Valley, Maine. The shop comes with a loyal customer base and a cat. Unfortunately Brody Steele, the new name of the former biker, doesn’t like cats, and hasn’t read a book since he was in high school. Steele’s new sleepy existence in this town comes with more events for him than he thought it would.
I think this is a cozy mystery with a bit of hard boiled detective novel thrown in. Maybe that’s not an accurate analyze of it, but at least the narrative is somewhat rougher than in most cozies I’ve read. The thing is that even though Steele likes to knit, the rougher voice fits his character. He is after all a biker with a violent past “behind” him.
Other than that I think this fits quite well into the cozy mystery genre. It has somewhat quirky cast of characters, a murder mystery, and a large dose of humor. In some sense a typical cozy, I guess. I enjoyed this read a lot. It has a building suspense throughout the novel, and humor that I found quite fitting. I liked this book so much that I will have to find the next in the series. -
I listened to Cozy Up to Death, the first in its series, and it was such a delight I am already listening to the second book. If you never tried an audiobook before, this would be a good one to start with -- not too deep or dense, with lots of humor. It's like a cozy in that way but better than a cozy in other ways. The narrator, Damon Abdullah, has a dreamy voice that he easily conforms to all the various quirky characters.
Thanks to Phrynne for starting me down this path. 😽🐈 -
This was a fun take on Witness Protection with an unlikely bookstore owner in a small town where some mob representatives have already staked their claim. How can this work? Lots of fun.
Kindle Unlimited -
Today is Brody Steele’s first day running The Red Herring, a mystery bookstore in Pleasant Valley, Maine. However, he’s not a reader. So what is he doing here? It’s a cover since Brody has just entered the Witness Protection Program after turning on his former motorcycle gang. Brody is sure he will find his new life too quiet. However, as he tries to settle into town, he begins to find questions. Is there danger lurking just below the surface?
I’m always looking for something different, so I was intrigued by the premise of this book when I first heard about it. It took a while for the story to get going, but once Brody started to realize something was wrong, I was hooked all the way until the climax. I enjoyed the character growth we saw in Brody, and I liked several other characters as well. I did think the writing could be a bit more polished. I also found a few things about the Witness Protection Program, as described here, a little hard to swallow. Then again, I haven’t done any research on it and instead learned everything I know about it from the TV show In Plain Sight, so I decided to sit back and enjoy the story, which I most certainly did. Despite the series name and book title, we do get more violence than in a typical cozy. Overall, I’m glad I gave the book a chance, and I’m curious to see where the series will go from here.
Read my full review at
Carstairs Considers. -
i got this thru The Fussy Librarian as a free ebook on amazon so i wasn't sure what to expect.
I chose it b/c i like cozy's and this seemed to have a new slant on the usual type.
The protagonist is a large man, ex-Outlaw biker who is now in the Witness Protection program. Not your usual amateur detective found in a cozy.
I liked the character of Beau/Brodie. I found him engaging and the story interesting even though he'd been a bad guy.
It does move a little slowly like any other cozy.
But this time, our amateur sleuth doesn't stumble across a dead body.
He's relocated to a small town in Maine as the new owner of a bookstore. The residents of the town wonder what happened to the previous owner Alice.
Alice is missing and that's what Beau/Brodie investigates.
There are a lot of suspects and small clues along the way. It was a good mystery.
Lots of twists. Some humor.
Apparently, this is the first book in what is a trilogy series, therefore the ending left off w/a bit of a cliffhanger. I definitely want to read the other 2 books & find out what happens next.
Negative-Beau/Brodie has an identifying tattoo. It seems to me that if you're going into hiding, you might want to get rid of said obvious identification.
Also, I'm not in law enforcement but I imagine those who are would know better that some of this is really not plausible. (but it's entertaining fiction so you leave realism at the door)
FYI: Beau is a criminal w/a violent past that catches up to him and brings turbulence to the peaceful town. So if you have issues w/empathy for a bad guy as your lead character than this isn't for you. But if you're interested in reading a good story w/a twist on the typical cozy, i'd recommend this. -
I was looking for another humorous cozy thriller series and decided to try COZY TO DEATH. The protagonist of this series is Brady Steele, a protected witness, who is given the concealment of a crime fiction bookstore owner in a small town in Maine. Brady has a violent past, but he testified against some who gave the orders, and so has been given this second chance.
The previous owner of the bookstore—another protected witness—disappeared, and Brody is drawn into the investigation of her disappearance.
I didn’t find this one terribly comical. To me, the satirical tone seemed forced. I enjoyed the interactions with some of the crazy people who lived in the town, and especially the cat who resided in the bookstore, but Brady wasn’t playful, or even very nice. This book was good enough to read to the end—hence the three-star rating—but when I discovered that the series was not going to remain in the small Maine town, but follow Brady, the unlikeable protagonist, from place to place, I decided that I didn’t want to read any more from this series. Would rather have followed the cat. -
This was a surprising treat. A little grittier than a cozy but there were definite elements of of the humor, “Cat”quirky characters, love interest etc. B. S. Is a great lead, he’s trying so hard to turn over a new leaf and not kill those who would hurt him and you can fell his inner struggle at letting the idiots live 🤣🤣 his ongoing was with CAT is just funny.
-
This was different (in a good way). It's about one man's first experience living in a small down under the Witness Protection Program. I really enjoyed watching "Brody" try to fit in, stay under cover and reel in his violent tendencies. And even though the titles in the series include the word "cozy", the violence level is a step up from most books in that genre, so be forewarned. I'll be reading the next in the series. 4 stars
-
Cozy Up To Death by Colin Conway
The Cozy Up Series #1
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be plopped down in a completely foreign-to-you setting and told you had to leave behind yourself and become someone entirely different? Why would this happen? Perhaps because you gave evidence to the FBI against someone with the power to kill you and fearing that would happen the government gave you a new identity. That happened to Beau Smith in this new take on the Cozy Mystery genre.
Beau has been put in Pleasant Valley, Maine to live a quiet life as a bookstore owner and given the name Brody Steele. He has a quiet town to settle into, a business to learn, a cat that came with the store and a town that wonders what happened to the previous owner. There is definitely a mystery or two or three to be solved and Beau/Brody is in the thick of things even while trying to maintain a low profile and not give away his past identity.
What I liked:
* Beau/Brody: a man with an interesting past who seems to enjoy the change a small town and its residents provide – especially Daphne
* The cat of many names – what an interesting idea for customers to have a cat in the bookstore and also have the legend that went along with the cat’s name
* The quirky characters sprinkled through the story
* That the cozy’s main character is a man and not the typical hero one would expect in this genre
* The twists and turns and surprises
* Beau’s ability to take charge
* The writing, plot and pace of the story
* That there was more action in this book than in most cozies
* The bad guys
What I didn’t like:
* The bad guys...glad they got their comeuppance
Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes
Was it the typical cozy mystery? No, not really, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway
Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars -
There's a prevailing belief in the crime-reading community that cozy readers don't read hard boiled and vice versa. I don't know how true that is (though I fit the bill as a hard boiled reader) but the good news is that with this book it doesn't matter! Conway's first Cozy Up book is a perfect mash up of cozy and hard boiled. He obeys (and teases a little) almost all of the cozy conventions while still delivering a story that would be right at home on the gritty pages of a Donald Westlake novel.
If you're a die-hard cozy fan, this book is for you.
If you're a die-hard hard boiled action fan, this book is for you.
The danger in trying to please two different tastes is that you'll satisfy neither. Conway adroitly dodges that pitfall and achieves quite the opposite - as a hard boiled fan, I enjoyed the hell out of this book, and based on the endorsement he got from Libby Klein, so did the cozy readers!
One of the things I liked about this was the small threads of humor woven into the story, always slightly tongue in cheek but never disrespectful. It allowed me as a self-satisfied hard boiled reader to gently mock the cozy conventions while I dug the elements of hard boiled that I was there for. However, about halfway through, I realized that any cozy reader would be doing essentially the same thing, but at my expense.
It's brilliant.
Conway rides the line of balance and navigates it masterfully. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!
(*I was fortunate enough to read an early copy of this book, and the next two, so I am speaking with an informed voice here -- this series rocks!) -
A man’s man of a cozy!
I love cozy mysteries a lot, but one of the things about them that drive me kind of crazy is the lack of any masculinity in them. It’s why as an author myself, I’m working on creating a brand new subgenre called a brozy mystery...a cozy with a bit of a kick to it. And after reading this book, I’d say that Cozy Up to Death is probably the broziest brozy of them all.
If I hadn’t already developed the term, I would have originally said this is an “anti-cozy”, because it takes all the cozy tropes and turns them upside down (maybe even dumps a few of them in the ocean and a dumpster or two along I-95), all the while paying beautiful tribute to those same tropes along the way.
I mean, here you have a guy who runs a bookstore (cozy trope, check), which has an adorable cat (cozy trope, check), in an idyllic small town (cozy trope, check), finds a little non-sexual romance along the way (cozy trope, check), and begins looking into the disappearance of a beloved town person that might have been murdered (cozy trope check). But let’s pull back the curtains just a bit (don’t worry! No spoilers here!) and we’ll find that that bookstore owner? Yeah, he’s an ex-bike club hatchet man with a heart of gold who happens to be in witness protection. He also hasn’t read a book since high school. The cat? Yeah, our hero isn’t a big fan of cats. But all bookstores need cats, right? So he’s got a cat (and the cat is very very awesome, I might add). The romance remains true no matter how you want to turn it up on its ear. In fact, the romance is rather amazing, and makes you see this big bad biker with the heart of gold (who loves his grandma) with even more adoration.
This book, I have to say, hit all the right notes for me. I absolutely loved it. In fact, it ties at my number 1 favorite cozy mystery along with John Gaspard’s Ely Marks series. Needless to say, on to book two with great anticipation. I should also point out that my comments about it being an ‘anti-cozy cozy’ shouldn’t be taken too literally. Conway takes great care to show a deep love and respect to the genre. It in no way diminishes the cozy genre, but in reality lifts it up. Builds it up. And makes it a force of good that will change even the hardest of career biker criminals into a sweet, good natured man who grew to love the small quiet little cozy town he was forced to move to by the US government.
And if you’re ever curious as to what a brozy mystery is...this is one for you to check out! -
I really enjoyed this book, which is hard to fit into a sub-genre. It has a cozy feel, with a bookstore, small town where everybody knows everybody else, and a cat. But it also has some violence.
This is the first in a trilogy--maybe there are, or will be, more than just the 3. There are enough loose ends to get me reading the next one quickly. -
Cozy up to Death is billed as 'not your grandma's cozy' - I suppose I could agree with that. There were definitely aspects you wouldn't see in the usual cozy. The problem is that it didn't quite work for me. The characters were likeable, if a bit two dimensional. The premise was interesting. But, I don't know, it just kind of petered out in the last third of the book. Maybe it was the fight scene where the MC fought off and won against two assailants? Or the big reveal at the end? Something just didn't click for me.
This is a first in series, so perhaps the books get better as they go along.
Pleasant read. -
I have been converted to truly enjoying Cozy Mystery's because of this book. I loved the characters. The storyline made me giggle and kept me interested from the first page to the last. I also loved the twist at the end of the book.
-
I thought this was a great book and a great start to a series. Having a guy in the Witness Protection Protection program owning a bookstore in a small is a great start to this cozy series. The characters were believable because of the wonderful writing.
-
I read this novel as an ARC, here is my review.
Who would think the big biker that suddenly becomes a book store owner is under the witness protection act? Who at what is he hiding from? How does he cope being invisible in a rinky dinky town? Who would believe he would inherit a cat in his new life, and actually like this scenario? A wonderful, clean and simply fun story! Well written, great characters and an interesting plot. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this little gem! Try it! You'll enjoy it as much as I did! -
2 star
It started out okay, but then it slowed down, dragged, and sorta fell apart. The plot felt contrived and forced and the character didn't really develop as expected. Definitely didn't feel anything like a cozy in the end. -
Cozy Up to Death by Colin Conway is the perfect book to get lost in. The story will capture the readers attention immediately and they will be powerless in putting it down.
In Cozy Up to Death readers are hanging around with main character Beau Smith who use to be the bookkeeper for a motorcycle gang but he turned on them to save himself from going to prison. In exchange for turning on his gang, he has been placed in the witness protection program and moved to Pleasant Valley, Maine where he is now Brody Steele and he is the owner of a mystery book store called The Red Herring. Being the owner of the bookstore he also "inherited" a cat....
While Brody is trying to get use to his new boring life, he meets a local woman that he falls for instantly. He also finds out that the previous owner of the bookstore left unexpectedly and a lot of the townspeople want to know why. After Brody learns more about Alice, the previous owner, he also begins to wonder about her sudden departure and him taking her place.
As Brody gets to know his new town and the people living there, he uncovers some secrets.....some secrets people are willing to kill over...... Can he save himself, the woman he is smitten with and his new town ??
Readers will enjoy getting to know Brody and Pleasant Valley. There is so much to love about this first book in the Cozy Up series that readers are sure to want to pick up future books. Conway's ability to draw readers in and hold their attention is off the charts amazing !! I didn't want the story to end but I wanted to know how it ended......not the worse dilemma to be in. -
This is what you might call a clean book. No sex, no swearing, and no graphic violence. Generally, that isn't my cup of tea, but Cozy Up To Death was not condescending about avoiding those things. It was a real pleasure to read, and I absolutely loved Travis/Marlowe etc. etc. The cat got his name from whoever interacted with him at The Red Herring. (I do wonder who was feeding him, unless he had a way out of the bookstore and fended for himself.) Apparently it was a bookstore rule that whoever the cat deigned to approach got to call him something related to mysteries, (hence Travis for Travis McGee and Marlowe for Philip Marlowe.) And my, my, did that cat have a lot of names!
Beau/Brody, a bookkeeper (eraser) for the Satan's Dawgs motorcycle club, entered the witness protection program and became the "owner" of The Red Herring, a bookstore that only dealt in mysteries, in the small town of Pleasant Valley, Maine, the last place an outlaw motorcycle gang would think to look.
Things are never what they seem, and he finds himself liking the town and the people (one person in particular), as well as becoming curious about the whereabouts of Alice Walker, the previous owner of The Red Herring.
This was a fun read, and I enjoyed seeing how Brody defended himself against various baddies and explained his background to the townspeople--naval seaman to naval officer to SEAL. I'm looking forward to the next book. (And I wonder if Beau will change his name again. ;-) ) -
Brody Steele, the name sounds like a hero in a detective novel. Brody Steele, doesn’t read. Not since high school. So, how in the world did he end up being the owner of a mystery book store in a small town on the coast of Maine?
Brody has been put into the government’s witness protection program. He is in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. One of the things some people know is how to be friendly. Brody is not familiar with the idea of people smiling at him and saying hello.
Before he became Brody, he was in a violent motorcycle gang. He was called “the bookkeeper”. That means he kept things evenly balanced. If someone owed the gang for whatever reason, he collected what was due.
Now he has short hair, no beard and he dresses in khaki pants and plaid shirts. He is a new man.
This is a really fun book. Brody finding his way around town and around his new life is amusing. Brody is dealing with a killer cat who has many different names, a young woman who thinks dating him is a good idea, and then there are the mobsters in the restaurant around the corner.
I liked this book a great deal. I have found there are more chapters in this adventure. I need to look into that. -
Entertaining Light Read ... A recently published article in our Spokane, Washington, newspaper drew my attention to this local author, and I immediately ordered this book. I like to sandwich a light, entertaining read between more serious and educational nonfiction, and this fit the bill perfectly. The story is set in a quaint little town in the state of Maine. The author paints a cozy picture of the charming, fictitious town with vivid descriptions of houses and businesses, all adorned with white picket fences. The town constable, a Barney Fife like character, adds to the humor sprinkled throughout the story. I recommend this book for readers who enjoy light mysteries. – David B. Crawley, M.D. – Author of “
Steep Turn: A Physician's Journey from Clinic to Cockpit” and “
A Mile of String: A Boy's Recollection of His Midwest Childhood.” -
This is the first in a series of cozies, each written around a different main character who is in the witness protection program. And all of the protagonists are men. Now, sometimes cozies can seem predictable, because they are written with the same basic formula of - person unexpectedly in a new, small town, murder happens nearby, they decide to try to help solve it. When this book began with Brody Steele at his first day running his new mystery book shop “The Red Herring” in Pleasant Valley, Maine, I was underwhelmed. But, quickly, I was chuckling and wondering what in the world was going to happen. Brody is such a likable character, and the audio version was hilarious with the reader doing a really deep voice for him. Like picture a giant, muscular biker dude completely out of his element in a tiny coastal town. It turns out that Brody is in witness protection and has been placed here in hiding. Soon he finds out, however, that his placement in Pleasant Valley doesn’t seem like such a good idea. There are murders, mobsters, and lots of action in this one. Short and exciting, give this unconventional cozy a try - especially the audio version.
-
Buckle up, Buttercup! This ain’t your standard Granny-owns-a-bookstore cozy. In the first place, Granny has disappeared and the Witness Protection people, in their infinite wisdom have ‘sold’ The Red Herring Mystery Bookstore to a Biker-turned-snitch now named Brody Steele. He knows books from zero. And he has a store full of them, in a quaint and cozy town in Pleasant Valley, on the coast of Maine. He also inherited a cat. And customers who want to know what he did with the previous owner.
And, of course, a mystery. And murder. And mayhem. And a girlfriend. He just wants to live a quiet life in the cozy town, maybe settle down with his new girlfiend, in a town where his old motorcycle gang will never find him. He’s not interested in the mob next door, or the knitting circle, or even his cat. Alas, they seem a tad interested in him. Too interested.
I have to admit, this is one of the bestest cozy mysteries I’ve ever read. However, trigger warning: don’t start this late in the day—it’s a one-sit read! -
I picked this up as a free Kindle book, and the reason I chose it was that the author said he had tried to imagine Murder She Wrote where Jessica Fletcher was instead a burly, tattooed ex-biker, and then he wrote that book.
Not sure I saw much Murder She Wrote in it (other than the small town in Maine setting) but it was an enjoyable mashup. The main character was utterly unlike the usual cozy mystery tropes, and rather than innocently stumbling upon a body, he is a former bad guy with a heart-of-gold who is in witness protection. The setting was pure cozy mystery -- a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business and thinks they have a right to comment on it.
All that said, it was a quick, light, fun read. The story moved along with good momentum, the characters were all developed enough to seem like real people, and the story got twisty early on. The final quarter of the book sort of changed tone, moving from a gentle mystery to an action-packed climax with a significant body count, but it still stayed well within the tolerance of most cozy readers, I assume. -
Beau Smith was a "bookkeeper" for a criminal motorcycle club. If someone got in the book for going against the club it was Beau's job to balance the books, usually by murder. But, after the FBI coerced him into providing evidence, he is now in the Witness Protection Program, named Brody Steele, and the owner of a mystery bookstore in Maine. The assignment doesn't feel right to "Brody".
For the first time in his life people are being nice to him and he might just learn to like the laid back pace of small town life. Especially after meets a cute young woman he hopes to date. But, that wouldn't be much of a story except he discovers a mafia underboss with a restaurant just a few blocks from his bookstore.
They call this book a cozy but it is more than that. It isn't a mystery, or a thriller. Maybe action/adventure and cozy mixed? You read it and you decide if this complicated book is a cozy.
