Last Word to the Wise is the second book in the Christie Bookstore cozy series by Ann Claire. Released 3rd Oct 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
This is a well written and engaging bookish cozy mystery set in ski country in Colorado. The amateur protagonists, sisters whose name is Christie, who own and manage a bookstore, are intelligent and believably rendered. The clues and mystery are fair play, and are self contained in this volume, so no cliffhangers or annoying "cheats" in the solution. They even have a shop cat named Agatha C. (for cat).
This installment sees the sisters involved in their cousin's startup, a bookish dating service, and although the denouement and
resolution are fairly easy to guess beforehand, they're well written and
satisfying. The language is
clean, and there's no graphic
violence or sexual
content. This would be a good choice for lovers of light cozies, the
kind with whimsically eccentric small town characters, a town diner, a
shop cat, and rural countryside. Readers who are fans of Diane Kelly and
Laurie Cass will find a lot to like here.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, or a short binge/series/buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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