This book was a nice, charming, cozy mystery. Maggie Dove is a relatable character, who used to write mystery novels for a living. Given her background, I thought she would be more suspicious of the too good to be true man, but she has been out of the game for a long time. I thought Agnes was a good balance to Maggie's goodie two-shoes type character. More cynical and suspicious, which balances Maggie's trust in humanity. I think this series will develop well over time. I plan to read more of this series as it comes out. I received this book for free as part of the Random House Mystery Chatpack through Chatterbox by House Party for my honest review. #RHMysteryPack #Sponsored ( )

I am in love with this new mystery series from Susan Breen. Maggie Dove features it's namesake, Maggie, a Sunday School teacher turned detective, as she tries to uncover the truth about her next-door-neighbor's untimely death at the base of her treasured oak tree. The small town in riddled with likely suspects, as the victim wasn't well liked. Maggie finds that everyone has secrets in the village, including her closest friends. The mystery was believable and had a surprise ending. Characters are believable and well describes, as were the scenes. I really enjoyed this book and hope to see more from this author.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This was a cute little cozy mystery. It is the first in a new series, so it should be interesting to see where it goes. I enjoyed the character, Maggie. She has her flaws, and her grouchy days, but overall is a good hearted person. The mystery was pretty good, although the final reason for the murder took me by surprise. It seemed a little random. But the characters are great, and the series could grow into something great.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley. ( )

I thought it started slow and dragged a bit. But once it got going it was a great story. The end was a little to quick and forced, and I didn't relate to the Church stuff - so I could have done without it. I wish the conclusion "whodoneit" part was thought out better- it was a great concept but it all seemed forced into one page of dialogue. #RHMysteryPack #Sponsored ( )

Maggie Dove is an older Sunday school teacher who lives in a small town I NY. In this story, Maggie becomes involved in finding the murderer of two townsfolk, who may have committed the two murders. Maggie’s neighbor wants to move or, worse still, get rid of, the big tree that is in her yard, because it obstructs his view of the Hudson. Maggie opposes this because she associates fond memories with the tree and is quite happy with its current location. This all comes to a head when Maggie finds this neighbor dead under this very same tree. Maggie is not sure whether this neighbor died of a heart attack or was poisoned, but, soon enough, finds out that he was poisoned. Unfortunately, the authorities suspect Peter, a close friend of Maggie’s now deceased daughter and a man who has become like a son to Maggie in the passing years. To complicate matters, Maggie soon learns that no one in the town cared much for this neighbor, so many people may have wanted him gone. Soon after, Maggie’s good friend, who had been suffering from a debilitating illness, is also found dead at the nursing home where she resided. Both she and Maggie’s neighbor have died from poisoning by the ecstasy drug. Peter, a town law enforcement officer, had ready access to this drug in his capacity as the town DARE rep, trying to help young people stay off or give up drugs and was often involved in confiscating this illegal drugs, both of which gave him ready access to this potent drug. Maggie does not like the fact that the town police chief, who is investigating the murders, has decided Peter is guilty and is not working very diligently to find anyone else who may have been responsible for the poisonings. Thus, Maggie becomes very involved in the investigations, her own parallel investigation and the official investigation, because she does not want to see Peter railroaded by this chief.

The story is actually not bad, though it moved rather slowly, as Maggie peeled away the many layers within the town and within the people who may have committed the murders. In addition, the characters, though developed well enough, seemed a little outdated and to be missing something, though I never could figure out what. Maggie is an interesting character, but I never was convinced she was a sleuth who could investigate murders on her own and ferret out pertinent information. Perhaps as the series goes on (and I think this is the start of a series), she will become more comfortable in and attuned to this role. This is a good first part of a series, but Maggie Dove and her PI modus operandi will have to improve a lot before it becomes a favorite of mine. I received this from NetGalley to read and review. ( )