Miriam Webster’s a woman with a few secrets—can she keep them after she and her spirited Dalmatian, Domino, find a body on Fitzgerald’s Bluff?
When Miriam Webster moves into the Seaview Cottages active adult community, the last thing she expects is to find a body on the bluffs nearby. The mystery takes a quick detour when Miriam and her friends return to Fitzgerald’s Bluff with the Deputy … with the Deputy Sheriff. The dead woman’s gone, but not for long. Where the body turns up is only one of the surprising twists the mystery takes for Miriam and her friends.
>>>Tracking Down the Killer
Convinced that the local deputy isn’t up to the task of finding a killer on the loose, Miriam and her gang of Grand Old Lady Detectives [G.O.L.D.] set out to discover the truth about a body on Fitzgerald’s Bluff.
>>>Can they solve the mystery without becoming the killer’s next victim?
To find out, grab your copy of book 1 in this new cozy mystery series by USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Anna Celeste Burke. Recipes included.
>>>Free to read with Kindle Unlimited!
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A Delightful New Cozy Series
A Body on Fitzgerald’s Bluff is the first book in Anna Celeste Burke’s Seaview Cottages Cozy Mystery series. This book is a quick and easy read. The storyline is well plotted, and the characters are well developed. Red herrings and twists and turns are abundant, and there’s no shortage of viable suspects to keep the reader engaged and guessing until the reveal. As always, Ms. Burke has given readers a clean read with delightful and three-dimensional characters and vivid descriptions that made me feel like I was involved with the action and enjoying the delicious food along with the characters. Even though a murder is involved, there is a personal and humorous side to this wonderful story.
Recently widowed, Miriam Webster aspires to be a writer, has a background in bookkeeping, is a talented baker, and resides in Hemingway Cottage with Domino, her high-spirited Dalmatian. When Miriam’s husband passed away, she learned that his wild schemes had nearly bankrupted them. Before he passed, Miriam’s husband, Peter Webster, purchased Hemingway Cottage, which is part of Seaview Cottages, one of the many “circles” that comprise an active adult retirement community for the fifty-five plus crowd just north of Santa Barbara in California’s Central Coast. The residential “circles” that comprise the community honor authors, artists, craftspersons, and luminaries of the theater and cinema. Miriam, who is only fifty-years-old, hopes no one will discover her true age or that Peter is deceased. Miriam and Domino were walking behind the Fitzgerald Cottage when Domino made the gruesome discovery of a woman’s body on the bluff. Marty Monroe, Midge Gaylord, and Penelope “Charly” Parker, members of the Seaview Cottages Walkers Club, responded to Domino’s barking, and due to poor cell service, everyone rushed to the community clubhouse to use the landline to report the body. Midge, who has a medical background, believes the woman was strangled. When Deputy Sheriff Darnell Devers arrives, the body is gone, but one shoe and some personal effects remain close to where the women saw the body. Darnell receives a call that a body has been found a short distance away in Blue Haven, and he tries to dismiss the original sighting, but the ladies insist they saw what they reported and that there is probably only one body. Everyone feels better when Henry “Hank” Miller is called in as the lead Detective, placing Darnell, who all the locals have various pet names for due to his “do as little as possible” attitude, as second in command. The victim is identified as Diana Durand. Diana was a beautiful young woman who used to perform as a singer at clubs in and around San Francisco and had men clamoring for her attention, but she used men, cheated on them, and had a reputation for hurting people for her own gain, and there seems to be no shortage of viable suspects. Miriam, Charly, Marty, Midge, and Cornelia “Neely” Conrad decide to band together as the “Grand Old Lady Detectives” and investigate on their own to help Hank. Carl Rodgers and Joe Torrance, who are also Seaview Cottages residents, also band together to investigate and keep an eye on the ladies, dubbing themselves as Charly’s angels.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
A Body on Fitzgerald’s Bluff is a delightful start to a new series. There is an awesome cast of Grand Old Lady Detectives (GOLD). These ladies are very sharp and have a wide variety of skills. I love them all. A body is discovered and then vanishes before police can be called. There are many suspects, and several possible motives. Everything is brought to a satisfactory conclusion. I have already started reading the next book.
fun and entertaining with lots of twists and surprises
Sea View Cottage Mysteries is a new series to me and this is book one. But Anna Celeste Burke is an author I really enjoy reading. I thought this was a great start to the series and I look forward to reading more in the series. The characters are just starting out in this book and I look forward to seeing how they develop in the books that follow.
Enjoyed the read
A very enjoyable read. You knew the end right from the beginning but the journey was well worth the effort.
It shows you are never too old to do something! senior citizens not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Very enjoyable to read,
I love cozy mysteries, especially when they feature quirky characters. This book is loaded with them. In fact, there are so many characters at the beginning that it takes a while to figure out who they all are. Very entertaining with an unpredictable ending.
I really enjoyed the variety of characters. Definitely my kind of book.
Good easy read!!!
Loved it!
What a lovely book about clever gal pals in the “55”+ age range as each uses her expertise to protect their residential community from a murderer and perhaps a con man.
I really want some of Miriam’s baking. The descriptions made the taste real. The work of the “ladies” made me laugh. Well done.
I like reading mysteries. I like to figure out who done it. It was good reading
Love when the elderly start investigating. So much mayhem can happen!
LOVE this series!! It’s my favorite series of them all! 🙂 Highly recommended!
This is the first book in the Seaview Cottages Cozy Mystery series, and I’m so glad I found it!
Miriam Webster (nope, not the dictionary silly) is the newest resident of Seaview Cottages. She’s moved in after the death of her husband. After he died, she’d discovered that he’d taken out a second mortgage on their house in Ohio and she couldn’t afford it anymore. Remembering the cottage they’d purchased in CA for retirement, she packs up and moves there. She’s hoping that the residents or the HOA gets wind that her husband’s passed, or she’ll be forced to leave the 55+ community. You see, she’s just 50 years old, and they won’t allow her to live there without her husband. She’s got other worries as well, she needs to find a job because the fees the HOA is asking for is out of her budget.
That’s not all though. While walking her dalmation, Domino, they discover a body on the bluff. After the police get there, they discover the body is missing. The deputy is an oaf, one that doesn’t listen to the women as they tell him what they know. You see, the deputy and the residents of the cottages have an intense like for each other. But the homicide detective, Henry “Hank” Miller does listen. Especially when the body washes ashore a few miles up the road. A few of the women in the community, along with a couple of the men team up to solve the case on their own with sometimes hilarious results.
These characters not only uncover the murderer, they uncover a plot to take over their community, a theft ring, and more.
I love that the characters in this series is older. I’m approaching my 50th birthday this year and I do get tired of reading about 20 somethings all the time. These aren’t your knitting circle grannies. They can be tough, courageous, and wise. I enjoyed the writing, the setting, and the characters, and I can’t wait to see what’s up next from the Grand Old Lady Detectives and Charly’s Angels.
**I read this story using my Kindle Unlimited subscription
This is such a fun new series and I love the idea of the older group of women working as sleuths–and a couple of the men sleuthed too, plus they provided some good comedy.
Miriam Webster lived in an age-restricted seaside community of cottages. When her husband was alive, it wasn’t a problem that she was only 50 in a 55+ community, but he had since passed, so she was keeping that passing a secret from her new friends for fear of getting tossed out of the place. After she and her Dalmatian, Domino found a body on the bluff and it turned into a murder case, a state detective was assigned to the case. For the residents, it was a breath of fresh air, since their usual deputy wasn’t exactly a mover and a shaker kind of officer. Miriam and her friends each had their own talents or knew people for investigating, so of course despite Det. Miller’s warnings, they snooped into the case, including going undercover, which was pretty funny.
Aside from the ladies, I just loved the characters of Joe and Carl! They were two typical guy buddies who hung out listening for gossip just like everyone who lived there. Sometimes they even came in handy to work on the case. They were always joking around, which made me think of my Dad who always liked silly jokes too. Domino the Dalmatian (Miriam’s dog) and Emily (Charly’s Jack Russell) got to be little heroes in taking down the killer when it was time for the showdown. I love it when pets are there to help! The GOLD girls (Grand Old Lady Detectives) even got their first case after the murders were wrapped up. It led into the next book and sounds like it’ll be really good. I can’t wait to read that one!
cozy-mystery, friendship, law-enforcement, murder-investigation
There was a benefit to reading the first book last: it answered a couple of nitpicks I would have sailed right over had I read them in sequence. This fine group of civilian collaborators is a hoot and are highly effective, definitely more than “Deputy Dawg” and somewhat of a challenge to Deputy Hugh. Great reads with lots of misdirection and suspects!
Plot twists and humor make for fun reading…
The plot twists and the antics of the Grand Old Lady Detectives made for a fun read. You can’t go wrong with murder, suspense, and some good humor! It kept me guessing until the end.This was a fun cozy mystery read. The characters are likable and there is a potential for romance in the future. It’s an entertaining read and I look forward to reading more in the Seaview Cottages Series. I finished the book in one day and thoroughly enjoyed it.