Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Booked 4 Murder by J.C. Eaton.  The excerpts shared are from a library copy.

 

Beginning:  Office of Sophie Kimball, Mankato Police Deparatment

"I'm telling you, Phee, they were all murdered.  Murdered by reading that book."

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Page 56:  "They all shook their heads.  What followed would have made Agatha Christie shudder."

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My thoughts:  This cozy series is the work of two authors, Ann I. Goldfarb and James E. Clapp, writing as J.C. Eaton.  What attracted me to this particular book is the title and its cast of characters, which includes a book club.  Book 2 in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series—Ditched 4 Murder—was released last month (November 2017), and book 3, Staged 4 Murder will be published on June 26, 2018.

Look for another series from this duo next year, with the publication in March 2018 of A Riesling to Die, the first book in the Wine Trail Mysteries.  
 

Cozy mysteries featuring books and wine—does it get any better than that?

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From Goodreads:  Sophie "Phee" Kimball is not a cop. She's a divorced, middle-aged mom who works as an account clerk for the police department in a small city in Minnesota. But her retired mother, Harriet Plunkett, is convinced Phee is the only one who can solve the mystery of a cursed book. According to Harriet, four members of her book club have already succumbed to the deadly curse. Harriet insists Phee catch the next plane to her retirement community in Sun City West, Arizona, to investigate.

Is her mother just bored and lonely? She does have a new pet—a long-haired chiweenie (half Chihuahua, half Dachshund)—for company and a host of pals (although that number is admittedly dwindling). Phee is certain that their book club selection isn't cursed, but is somebody really knocking off the ladies? As Phee starts to uncover dark secrets hidden in plain sight under the blazing Arizona sun, she'll need to read between the lines before it's someone else's final chapter.... 

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This Friday Focus post was originally written and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.