Murder at Hotel 1911 (Ivy Nichols #1)

Murder at Hotel 1911 is the first book in a new modern cozy series by Audrey Keown. Due out 8th Sept 2020 from Crooked Lane, it's 272 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a modern cozy set in a small themed boutique hotel. Protagonist Ivy is a psychology student taking a break from her studies and working as a night-shift receptionist. When suspicion for the murder of a colossally unpleasant customer falls on Ivy's friend, chef George, she decides to get to the bottom of the story on her own.

I loved the premise of the plot, it has an almost Betram's Hotel vibe going on. Sadly the execution doesn't live up to the setup and I found this one a difficult slog at places.  I had problems developing a rapport with most of the characters, and although Ivy was meant to be a sympathetic characters (and I did feel compassion and sympathy over her personal mental health struggles), her near continual random analysis of other characters' motivations and mental issues was weird and felt unnatural. She tosses random one-line quotes from Jung and Cicero into the narrative and each and every time it happened I felt a speed bump in my suspension of disbelief. Many of the secondary characters were two dimensional and I didn't feel their actions were a believable extension of their supposed motivations.

The book does have a lot of positives. The setup is classic golden age mystery. The decreasing pool of potential suspects are winnowed out in classic style (through fact checking or their own demise), and the setting is interesting and engaging (a former mansion with lots of hidden secrets, turned into a small theme hotel with 11 rooms for guests modeled on the early 1900s). The official investigation was just strangely handled - the detective basically gives Ivy her blessing and 4 days to solve the case or they're going to send George up the river.

The denouement and solution were oddly written and I found myself re-reading a couple of chapters because the solution came so completely out of left field.

Two and a half stars. Rounded up because I really feel the series has potential. There are many examples of wonderful series which needed a couple of books to find their pace and footing.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.