2.5...it’s vacation! That’s my excuse for choosing a pure potboiler lacking substance. Lizzie Turner is a busy lady in Little Ashton Corners AL. She is an elementary reading specialist by day, a literacy teacher, book club host, choir member and amateur sleuth during all other hours. Quite contrived, but still fun. At the very first meeting of Lizzie’s mystery book club which includes her best friend Sally Jo, some literacy students with issues, a retired police chief and her mentor/mother figure Molly, a murder occurs right outside the house after a stranger wanders in and asks to use the phone. The club become suspects, though not really for any police dept worth it’s salt. Just so happens the new chief in town is Lizzie’s former HS crush. So there’s that plot line. The book club begins doing its own fumbling investigations, especially Lizzie who probably want to impress Mark. She is also receiving unsolicited anonymous manuscript chapters, and middle of the night phone calls that require her to confront her father’s accidental death when she was a little girl. Lots going on and we always get info parceled out through Lizzie’s daily routine including what she ate and wore. Lots of cookie baking in this southern setting. Other complaints: people don’t know each other better in this small town and the neighboring one might as well be Mars. Police can’t get a clue, literally. And even though it is a current setting the internet doesn’t seem to give anyone useful info. Thumbs up for Lizzie’s literary leanings and the chapter captions which come from other potboilers: “Chapter and Hearse,” “Tressed to Kill,” “Her Royal Spyness” — complete lust included at the end. This is the first in a series. Next up “Read and Buried.” If you like your mysteries light, fluffy and pulpy, jump right in. ( )

Ashton Corners is a small town in Alabama and the hometown of Lizzie Turner. Turner works as a reading specialist for the local schools and is an avid mystery reader. To encourage more reading, she starts the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society. It is a combination book club and social group. Meetings are held at Molly Mathew's old Southern mansion and at the first one there is a murder.

A stranger is found wondering in the entry to Molly's house. He asks to use her phone to call for help due to car trouble. A short time later he is found in his car, out front of the house, dead of a bullet wound. It seems they have their own mystery to solve!

This is a cozy with a little southern charm added. Lizzie and the book club are determined to find the killer and solve the mystery. At the same time, Chief of Police Mark Dreyfus (Lizzie's old high school crush) is also trying to solve it and keep Lizzie from getting herself in a rough place.

The members are either sleuthing or eating some great sounding desserts, but they are all busy.

This is a first in the series and a fun read! ( )

Bleh. I like the idea of a book club mystery. I liked the quotes from other cozy mysteries at the beginning of each chapter. But, the whodunit reveal was a character so obscure I didn't even remember who that character was, so that was a giant letdown. Sigh. ( )

A Killer Read is the first book in the Ashton Book Club Mystery series. And a killer read it was, too.

I really enjoyed this series and like the fact that this Canadian author did such a great job of setting her book in the States.

Lizzy Turner is a reading specialist for the school system in Ashton Corners. Lizzy and Molly Mathew's are putting the final touches doe the first meeting of Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society, which will meet in Molly's mansion. Just as the meeting is starting one of members says that there is a stranger in hallway. Molly and Lizzie go to find out who it is what and what he wants. He has entered the home without knocking claims to be having car trouble and asks to use the phone. Lizzie and Molly overhear part of the call and it sure doesn't sound like he is calling a tow truck. One of the members, Bob Miller the retired police chief, goes to check the man out and finds him, shot by unknown person. As the police investigate it is learned that the gun belonged to Molly's deceased husband. And there also some semi-valuable knickknacks that Molly has also noticed have gone missing.

Soon, Lizzie is finding chapters from someones apparent manuscript. Then Lizzie gets a late night phone call asking her about the story her father was working on when he died in an automobile accident. Can this, and how be related to the murder of this mysterious man.

With all of the member of the book group working together, they are able to determine who the murderer is before anyone else falls victim.

The book contains a wonderful cast of characters and a lovely told story. ( )

I'm not sure how I felt about this book - perhaps a tad ambivalent. The murder mystery was well developed, with good clues, red herrings, blind alleys, and a good conclusion. I appreciated the references throughout the book to other mystery writers too. I think my ambivalence stems from the characters, mostly Lizzy. She, and to a lesser degree a couple of the other characters felt wooden or robotic. A lot of the writing consisted of outlining Lizzy's day, with little or no colour thrown in to make it more interesting. Some of this might be the result of the third person narrative, but I don't think that can explain all of it. It just felt a bit like I was reading about an automaton. Not all of the characters struck me like this; Paige for example, while a minor player, felt far more three-dimensional to me.

I'll keep my eye out for the next book, but it won't be high on my list of must-haves yet. ( )