Murder at Pirate's Cove: Secrets and Scrabble, Book 1

So cozy mysteries are not usually my thing, but I am sorry that I waited so long to read this story. I’ve always loved Josh Lanyon‘s writing, and this is no exception. Good mystery good dialogue good start to a new series.

“It isn’t very pretty what a town without pity can do.” (Gene Pitney)The first of what is going to be a charming series of cozy mysteries featuring failed-actor-now-bookshop-owner Ellery Page, “Murder at Pirate’s Cove” sets the scene for both bloodshed and romance. Aside from Lanyon’s expected good writing, I was instantly reminded of her iconic “Adrien English” series, also featuring a bookshop owner, which was darker and harder-hitting than this series is meant to be, I’m sure. On the other hand, the potential romance with the local police chief, Jack Carson, is going to be a slow burn, and therein lies one of Lanyon’s greatest appeals for me. Ellery Page is gay, a failed (possibly untalented) actor who, at the moment of betrayal by someone he loved, finds himself the heir to a crumbling mansion and an unprofitable bookstore that specializes in mysteries. And that’s it. This is about a young man trying to reorganize his life into something meaningful and stumbling into a bloody mess—literally—that turns his already precarious world upside down.Before I even started reading this, I commented to a friend that it sounded like a Jessica Fletcher kind of thing—only to find that this is a recurrent joke in the book itself. Buck Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, seems a potential avatar of the actual Block Island; but it is tricked out in cozy small-town set pieces with cozy small-town characters. The whole thing as presented is intentionally trite, making the ugly violence more shocking. The cheesy 1961 song, “Town Without Pity,” (which was nominated for an Oscar!) kept running through my mind, because that’s where Lanyon’s cozy set up becomes sharp-edged—poor battered Ellery Page, barely keeping his head above water, treated like an outcast and a suspect by the people who are supposed to be his neighbors.My daughter, in her twenties, has a way of looking at me and saying “that seems to be a you problem.” And she’s quite right. One of my “you” problems is my inability to overlook minor details that damage my suspension of disbelief when reading fiction. Captain’s Seat, the crumbling granite mansion that Ellery inherits from his great-great-great-aunt Eudora Page, is described vividly, and very clearly, as a huge, ornate Victorian house. However, in the book, it is always referred to as an 18th-century sea captain’s house. These are mutually exclusive things, especially for an architectural historian who knows Rhode Island buildings. Secondly, the comical repetition of “great-great-great” before Ellery’s hitherto unknown deceased relative is genealogically impossible. Any relative of mine with that title would have been born in the 1820s. That’s the way generations work. Two greats, maybe, but three won’t cut it unless Eudora was 120.My irritating quibbles aside, I enjoyed this book, because it was what I needed to read right now, and because Josh Lanyon knows how to write. Cozy mysteries are not an all-the-time thing for me, but now and then I really need a dose of Jessica Fletcher’s younger gay avatar. The next book in the series is on my Kindle and I’ll start it today.

Once again (and just about always) Lanyon delivers a winner. I am sure there are many readers who follow Lanyon because of the M/M romance that occurs in all her books, probably because there is a scarcity of quality writing in this particular genre, and that may be why I decided to sample her work to begin with, more out of curiosity than any compulsive interest. But that is not why I continue to read her. Simply put, her protagonists are unfailingly unique, colorful, intelligent, witty, and easy to like, combining heroic character with all-too-human flaws, which only serve to make them more relatable. That is definitely the case here, when we meet Ellery Page, newly arrived in a quaint seaside village, as he seeks to leave his New York life behind him and take on the challenge of restoring a failing book shop left to him by a distant relative he never knew. The village is lovely, but not nearly as innocuous as it seems when the villain of the piece takes action to deprive him of everything that he treasures and leave him accused of the murder of a local business mogul, which initiates his contact with the local police chief - and introduces the romantic elements of the story. And here is the main reason I love her work so much. The budding romance between the two men is simply a natural development of the plot; it is not the sole purpose of the story, and it is not an excuse to explore the physical nature of the relationship. It happens in the book as it happens in life, demonstrating that courage, character, and conscience are not defined by who or how a person happens to love. Well played, as usual, and fully deserving four very brilliant stars.

I love mysteries and romances that involve bookstores so this was right up my alley. If you enjoy the Death on Demand mysteries by Carolyn G. Hart you will like this series. Ellery (great choice of character name!) inherits a decaying mansion and a failing bookstore in Rhode Island and moves there to try to salvage both. Our villain intends to make sure he does not succeed. As always in series like this, Ellery and his dog Watson can't help but insert themselves into the investigation in order to clear his name. He butts heads with the widowed police chief Jack Carson but there is clearly a spark there that will develop as the series progresses. The focus is on the cozy mystery, not the romance and I enjoyed everything about this book from the characters, to the setting, to the mystery. It has been a while since I found a cozy series to get involved in but this is clearly it. Will eagerly await future volumes.

Warning: while this book is on KU, I don’t know if it will stay that way. The second book is NOT on KU, so if you don’t want to start a series that you have to buy, you might want to avoid this.That said, this was a fun, lighthearted read. It goes a little beyond slow burn; there is not even a kiss in this book. According to the afterword, we shouldn’t expect any on-page sex or violence. Apparently, that’s a feature of a “cozy,” which I didn’t know. This was not a problem for me. I enjoy a well-written mystery with no need for sex. However, as a well known MM writer, readers of Lanyon might not expect that.

JL delivered another quaint little town with quirky characters that you just want to love. I found it slightly challenging to connect with all the ancillary characters, but by the resolution of the first mystery, I do find myself looking forward to spending more time with Ellery and Jack.I am a little disappointed that only the first title is available on Kindle Unlimited. While I would love to support the author and buy every title it just isn’t feasible for me at this time.

Murder at Pirate's Cove is the first in the Secrets and Scrabble series, a series of cosy murder mystery books with a gay protagonist set in a small seaside town. In this book, we meet Ellery Page, who has inherited a house and mystery bookshop from a great aunt and recently moved to town. Unfortunately, when a corpse is found in his shop suspicion lands on him as he tries to clear his name. This is the sort of book which makes promises before you begin and it delivers on those promises. It is definitely nice to read a little more diversely in a genre that isn't typically very diverse at all. There are hints towards a potential m/m romance for our protagonist, but the story is very much focused on the mystery aspect. The mystery itself is decent, it involves a lot of listening to gossip and asking around the town, but there are definitely scenes of action. I think it would make a great Sunday afternoon film. I came to the conclusion a page or two before the protagonist, which was quite fun because you feel as though you're on the journey with him. The characters were good, but I think that they can be even better with a little more development, something I hope to see in future books. It is quite a short book, only 206 pages, so there was definitely some missed opportunities to flesh out the characters a little more. However, Murder at Pirate's Cover does fulfil what it sets out to do and does it successfully.

I’ve read a few Josh Lanyon novels and I always come to the same conclusion. They never quite ‘flow’ for me. I took a chance on this ‘cozy m/m’ genre because really there just aren’t enough quality books that involve two men a mystery. However, this book is no exception to the usual JL story. It just doesn’t come together very well. I’m not sure if it’s the sentence structure or fragmented attempted at revealing the plot but it was a battle.The first two thirds felt like being in a boat with only paddle and just going around in circles. Nothing really fit together and the plot was sluggish. The last third however things started to get interesting. The pace was good, the plot came together and made a satisfying conclusion and there was a nice flow to the story. It just took too long to get there,The scrabble subtitle felt like miss as the game barely featured and when it did somewhere became almost supernatural in its ability to reveal clues. If I read great-great-great one more time I was going to scream. That said, I liked the main characters and the overall premise so I’ll give the second book a chance.

Really enjoyed this great start to a new series by Josh Lanyon, characters are well drawn, looking forward to the next book. Would recommend.

An enjoyable mystery with characters who you can tell apart and remember. I am looking forward to meeting the main characters again in book two. God work Josh.

A sweet little read and a good group of quirky characters can’t wait to see where this goes .