As a retired librarian that has hosted many author/book signing events, as a former bookstore employee, at one time, a former NYC resident, and with familiarity of the layout of rowhouses (home of my grandparents in NE Philadelphia), this novel brought many smiles as I could so easily immerse myself in the setting and descriptions. I enjoyed the sleuth of bookstore owner Darla Pettistone, fellow resident and former NYC officer Jake, NYC officer Reese, neighbor Mary Ann, adorable customer Callie and especially resident extraordinaire and expressive black cat Hamlet.

I'm looking forward to continuing reading this series! ( )

I am a sucker for books set in bookstores, so I really enjoyed that aspect of it. I always wonder how independent bookstores survive, and I liked the look behind the scenes of the running of the store. The mystery was pretty good. Several suspects kept me guessing. I didn't like how quick they were to blame the cross dressing character. It seemed they went out of their way to accuse him. It also seemed the murderer's confession was a little to easy to obtain. This is a promising start to a new series. ( )

Decent predictable dime store mystery ( )

Darla Pettistone has inherited her aunt's bookstore as well as the too-clever "bookstore cat" Hamlet. At her first big store event, a popular author dies - is it on accident or murder?

This book's cat is very reminiscent Koko of "The Cat Who..." mysteries by Lillain Jackson Braun. Something about the book's description originally made me think this would be a paranormal cozy, but it really just seems to be a very smart cat. The plot of this first in a series was good, lots of twists and turns. I found the characters to be a bit flat, and I found myself skimming once in awhile as the scenes failed to hold my attention. I found nothing at all to like about James, but hopefully he'll remain a background character. The cat, Hamlet, is great - lots of attitude. Overall, a bit mediocre, but then first books often can be, so I'll definitely check out the next one and look forward to improvement. ( )