I enjoyed this easy, light read. The small town setting with its quirky people made the story seem real.
I'm going back to read the other two books. ( )

Secrets and Scrabble is a cozy mystery series. I don’t usually care much for cozies ...however I LOVE Josh Lanyon so I am willing to give anything she writes a try. I read the first book in this series Murder At Pirates Cove, several months ago and found even though there’s no hot romantic scenes...the possibility is there if the police chief ever finds the map with the door of that closet that he’s in, marked with a big red X. What the series does have is a really good mystery in a quaint little ocean side town. It also contains plenty of humor as well as well written and likable characters. I was happy to catch up with the quirky characters and appreciated the evolution in Ellery. He was much less clumsy than before, and his romance with Jack is still slow burning...or perhaps simmering is a better word. In the first book in the series, he rescued Watson, who has turned out to be one of the loveliest dogs in the “cozy mystery universe” Things are going well in Pirates Cove in spite of the bodies that seem to come there to die and clog up Ellery’s life. I am so looking forward to visiting again with book #4. Just as a brief side note: If you are not a fan of m/m romances but you are a fan of mysteries...especially the cozy variety...I believe that you would really enjoy this series. The author has really tried hard to make this a series for everyone. ( )

Always a pleasure! I hope there is more to come. ( )

Ahhhh my favorite of the series so far!! The ending was a sigh of relief and just an unburdening feeling of finally. And of course, we got lots of Watson being his cutie patootie self ( )

situational-humor, verbal-humor, island-life, small-business, small-town, romance, family-dynamics, friendship, LGBTQIA, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth*****

First off, I have never read anything by this author before but I liked it so very much that I bought the first two in series on audio before I had even finished this one. And not because it couldn't stand alone, either, but because this one was so good! It truly follows all the cozy criteria and has a great plot, fascinating characters, and laughs. It also has a police detective, a bookshop owner and former professional TV actor named Ellery (like Ellery Queen mystery writer!), a frenetic puppy named Watson (is there any other kind?), and the Silver Sleuths (but no covid).
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from JustJoshin Publishing, Inc. via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )