Mostly Murders

“If she’s correct, and her daughter didn’t write this note, then we have a murder case on our hands, don’t we?”

Book 1 in the Advice Column Mystery series. Rebecca Butterman is a clinical psychologist and advice column writer. When her neighbour Madeline Stanton is found dead, the official explanation is suicide, but Madeline’s mother is convinced otherwise, and as Rebecca reluctantly investigates, she begins to suspect that Madeline’s mother may be right.

Deadly Advice is labelled as a cozy mystery, but it is definitely on the darker side compared to most other cozies. There are no explicit descriptions of blood or violence, but there are some heavy themes like suicide and depression, and even the main character, as a psychologist herself, is not exempt from trauma.

If you are looking for a safe, peaceful, cute, cozy mystery, this isn’t the right choice for you. But if you want a murder mystery/crime drama with both cosy and dark elements, featuring advice columns, a critical look at the modern-day dating scene and online voyeurism of blogs, a psychologist’s view of the world and an amateur sleuth trying to come to terms with her life as a newly divorced, self-deprecating, middle-aged woman with her own emotional baggage to deal with, give this one a go.

Dark cozy mystery – Murder mystery