The Book Club Murders by Leslie Nagel (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

It's Tuesday again so time for another round of linking up to Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday! "First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is the first paragraph (or two) of a book being read now or in the future and is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. "Teaser Tuesday" from Books and a Beat asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

***Text from Uncorrected Proof provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review -- final version may differ***

Amazon Description

In a charming cozy mystery series debut, Leslie Nagel’s irrepressible small-town heroine finds that her fellow mystery book club members may be taking their Agatha Christie a bit too literally—and murder a bit too lightly.

Charley Carpenter has poured heart and soul into her clothing store, Old Hat Vintage Fashions. She’ll do anything to make it a success—even join the stuffy Agathas Book Club in order to cultivate customers among the wealthy elite of Oakwood, Ohio.

Although mixing with the most influential women in town has its advantages, Charley finds the endless gossip a high price to pay. But after two women with close ties to the Agathas are brutally murdered, everyone falls under threat—and suspicion. When key evidence indicates that both murders are the work of the same hand, Charley realizes that the killer has arranged each corpse in perfect imitation of crime scenes from the Club’s murder mystery reading list. She uses her membership in the Club to convince Detective Marcus Trenault to use her as an inside informant. Not that he could stop her anyway.

Intelligent, fearless, and every bit as stubborn as Marc is, Charley soon learns the Agathas aren’t the only ones with secrets to protect. Passions explode as she and Marc must race against time to prevent another murder. And if Charley’s not careful, she may find herself becoming the killer’s next plot twist.

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I was hooked from the very beginning. By the time I hit the 20% mark I was ready to declare this a favorite series. By 67% I had come to the conclusion that Leslie Nagel is absofreakinlutely brilliant. By the end I was praying that Nagel is a fast writer so I don't have to wait too long for the next book!

This has so many elements that I love in a cozy: a quirky lead heroine, a rough-around-the-edges romantic interest, comic relief, heartfelt "awwwww" moments, a good mystery with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing, and added bonus points for the tie-ins to other phenomenal mysteries that have come before. It's all woven together brilliantly and it's so hard for me to narrow down which part of any of it I enjoyed the most.

Charley is stubborn and fearless and yet absolutely terrified of so much -- failure, emotions, something else happening to her dad, etc. She owns a vintage clothing store in Oakwood, Ohio, and lives with her father and his full-time caretaker, Lawrence. Her father has had three strokes and had partial paralysis and speech issues, but is absolutely darling and the three of them make a delightful family grouping. Her extended family of choice also includes her best friends Dmitri and Frankie. She and Frankie have been joined at the hip since they were young and Frankie is how Charley first becomes involved with the Agathas -- the center of our mystery.

Dmitri and Frankie crack me up repeatedly but I think that my loudest guffaws came courtesy of Marc's partner, Paul Brixton. We don't see an awful lot of him, but when we do he tends to light up the page and often puts Marc to rights about life in general (and Charley specifically) referring to him as Grasshopper. 

Oh, Marc. Manly. Damaged. Protective. Hot. It took a while to break him down, but once he was I absolutely knew why Charley had been crushing on him since high school.

As for the mystery itself, well, I won't say much. The description above lays out the basics of it well and the nitty gritty awesomeness you just have to read for yourself. Luckily, you don't have to wait for long to do so since the book will be released by Alibi on September 27th.