The Novel Art of Murder is Book 3 in the Mystery Bookshop Series.
Firstly, I LOVE BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS! I also really enjoy the senior citizen
characters who have not only one, but two murders on their hands to solve
at Shady Acres.

The mystery is so well done, with a murderer I did not see coming.

I really enjoy the Mystery Bookshop Series with such likeable characters and a great plot.

This is a stand alone story, but the first two books are equally as fantastic, so go read those TOO!!!

Another solid installment in a cozy series featuring Sam, a bookseller who is also an author. This time out she's investigating who really killed the rotten Maria at the retirement community where her Nana Jo lives because for sure Nana Jo didn't do it! There are the usual twists and red herrings but what makes this special is the romance Sam is writing as well as her relationships, especially with Dawson. There's a love interest here for Sam, a relatively recent widow, and it will be interesting to see how this develops. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Don't worry if you didn't read the earlier books (although you will wish you did because this is so good) - it's fine as a standalone. Looking forward to more!

I love this series and think this is the best instalment.
I loved the dual mystery and was happy to meet again the cast of characters.
The mystery is very good, full of twists and turns, and I loved the historical references, well researched and detailed.
The cast of characters is lovely as usual, both human and canine. As a pet owner I was moved by the parts where it tells about the dog age and the possibility of losing them.
A very good mystery, enjoyable and entertaining.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for this ARC

The Novel Art of Murder was another wonderful installment in the Mystery Bookshop cozy series and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Every year mystery bookstore owner Samantha Washington's Nana Jo is cast in the leading role in the Shady Acres Senior Follies, the production from the local retirement village. But this year flamboyant Maria Romanov lands the role despite being a terrible actress causing Nana Jo to lay into her in front of everyone. When Maria turns up dead a few hours later, Nana Jo becomes the prime suspect much to Sam's dismay. Determined to prove her grandmother's innocence, Sam and Nana Jo's group of friends set out to uncover Maria's secrets including who would want to kill her.

Sam is such an amazing main character that it makes it impossible not to like these books. She runs a successful business while pursuing her true passion with writing and she's such a genuine and caring person that you can't help but like her. I really enjoy her relationship with her grandmother as well as the mother-son type relationship she has with Dawson. In the last book, Read Herring Hunt, the possibility of a romance for Sam was introduced which is further explored in this book. While Sam is still grieving her husband, she is slowly exploring a relationship with Frank and I have to say I quite like the two of them together.

The mystery in this book is very well done and I found myself eager to find out who the killer would end up being. I liked that Sam paralleled the book she's writing with real life events as that made things a bit more interesting as Sam explored her theories through her writing. Once again Nana Jo's group of friends return to help clear her name and I loved seeing these ladies again. Their friendship is wonderful and I like how each lady brings her own set of skills to the investigation. I was a bit surprised by the killer's identity as I had someone else in mind, but I will say I enjoyed the reveal and thought it was cleverly done.

The Novel Art of Murder has definitely solidified the Mystery Bookshop series as one of my favorite cozy mystery series and I highly recommend this for new and old fans of the genre.

V.M. Burns' The Novel Art of Murder is the 3rd charming book in her Mystery Bookshop series about widow Samantha Washington, her grandmother, and Nana Jo's band of senior sleuths. Murder hits a little too close to home for Sam when Nana Jo is a suspect in the untimely death of a resident in her retirement community. Poison, blackmail, Nazis, and priceless stolen artwork all feature in this very cozy mystery, and Ms. Burns has once again included snippets of the delightful English cozy that Sam is writing (a mystery on its own!!!) for an added bonus. I love, love, love this series and highly recommend it! 5 stars!

A Novel Art Of Murder is the third book in the A Mystery Bookshop Mystery series.

I enjoyed another visit with Samantha(Sam), her grandmother Nana-Jo, and Nana-Jo’s “posse” from the retirement community.

Nana-Jo is mad enough to spit nails as this story starts. Nana-Jo has played the lead in the Shady Acres Senior Follies for the last ten years. But this year the lead role has been given to Maria Romanov. Nana-Jo and her posse just don’t understand, as Maria can’t carry a tune in a bushel basket. This causes a very loud argument between Nana-Jo and Maria in front of several witnesses. Then when Maria is found dead from a gunshot, Nana-Jo becomes a prime suspect. Sam and Nana-Jo and their friends begin to investigate to clear Nana-Jo’s name. Then, when Irma finds Magnus von Braun, another resident, is found dead in his apartment from an apparent poisoning, Sam begins to wonder if there might be more than one killer. They now set off to learn if there is anything to tie each other to a single killer or not.

Sam is an aspiring author and has finished a couple manuscripts and has found that turning to write her next book helps her to find the answers to the actual mysteries that are being faced in the real world. This book within a book deals with Winston Churchill who is hosting a house party at his home, Chartwell House.

I feel this book is well-written and plotted and a very interesting cast of characters. It also has enough red herrings and twist and turns to keep me guessing till the exciting ending. I also enjoy having a story within a story.

I will definitely be watching for the next book in this interesting series.

I love this series. I am always very interested in how the mystery novel the main character, Sam, is writing gets solved. The secondary characters are interesting as well, and I like how they are older individuals who are helping to solve the main mystery. I like that the setting in a mystery bookstore and that characters introduced in a prior book are brought back. I'm looking forward to many more in this series.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book for my honest review.
Loved this book !!! I had so much fun reading this book. It had a great plot, unique characters who had me laughing out loud. I found that I enjoyed having a mystery book within a mystery book, when bookstore owner Samantha Washington was writing her own books. I still didn't figure out either book till the reveal. Overall a wonderful book and I will be getting the rest of the series.

I’m still new to the world of cozy mysteries, but I couldn’t resist the pull of this cover – I mean, come on, there are poodles on the cover! (My family has a black miniature poodle and I adore him!)

The Novel Art of Murder is the third book in the Bookshop Mystery series – which, full disclosure, is the only book in the series I’ve read. I didn’t have an issue with not knowing previous plot points – the author includes a lot of recaps (potentially too many recaps) of prior books so it was easy enough to figure who all the characters were, where they fit into the overarching story and what their relationships to one another were.

The book opens with Nana-Jo discovering that the lead role in the local senior citizens production has been taken away from her by the flamboyant Maria – a woman Nana-Jo can’t stand and this leads to a loud and public confrontation between the two. Which wouldn’t be so bad, if Maria isn’t later found dead from a gunshot to the head. Nana-Jo becomes the lead suspect and her granddaughter, Samantha, is the one leading the charge to clear her name. They rally their friends in the senior citizens village, as well as a host of other locals, and begin to solve the mysterious death of Maria, and, later, the second body that turns up.

Interspersed with the main storyline is the murder mystery plot line of Samantha’s unpublished work – a British mystery involving Winston Churchill and his family – which serves as a way for Samantha to try and solve some of the stickier plot points of the death of Maria. I thought this was an interesting way to solve the murder and was not something I’d seen before.

The Novel Art of Murder was a fun little mystery with lots of very engaging and dynamic characters. There was a real sense of place and a great sense of ‘family’ between all of these characters who were not necessarily related by blood, but had clearly built strong ties between themselves.

I also really appreciated the Bookshop setting – it made it feel very cozy and bookish, and even having book clubs being run throughout the course of the story was a lot of fun. (I’ll admit, I loved all the Charlaine Harris book references, too!)

What stopped me from rating it higher than 3.5 stars was simply the amount of information that is revisited over and over again. I don’t mind a bit of repetition, but sometimes it felt like I was being force-fed information I already knew and it slowed the pacing down.

Overall it’s an enjoyable read and definitely a book that one could sit down and read with a cup of tea wrapped up in a cozy blanket.

3.5 stars

This pleasant cozy is set in a mystery bookstore, the lifelong dream of husband and wife Leon and Samantha Washington. Sadly, Sam was left widowed and is carrying on alone. Well, not really alone -- a great deal of the appeal of this series is the likable cast of characters, including Sam's mother and grandmother, sister, nephews and her grandmother's eccentric, smart and unconventional cast of elderly friends.

When a woman is murdered at Sam's Nana Jo's retirement complex, Nana Jo comes under suspicion since she was heard threatening the victim after she lost the lead in an area musical to the interloper. So Sam and crew have to step in to stop Nana from being arrested.

This is a cozy, with a great deal of implausibility built in but fans of good-hearted mysteries with some humor mixed in won't be disappointed. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After losing her husband, widow Samantha Washington retires from her teaching job and takes on a new career as both a mystery writer and owner of a mystery book shop. A great fit for a woman who, along with her grandmother and a group of other women, likes to solve mysteries.

When a new resident at Nana Jo’s retirement community is murdered, Nana is the main suspect. But Samantha and the ladies are on the case! Eerily enough the murder seems to parallel the mystery Samantha is currently writing, but even she doesn’t know how that will end. It’s a race to clear Nana’s good name as the clock ticks down to the police needing to make an arrest.

This was my first introduction to the Mystery Bookshop series and I really like the characters. Samantha, her mother and Nana Jo are all widows and learning to let themselves love again. The characters emotions and ways they deal with things is genuine and relatable.

Best bonus is that as a mystery writer, you get Samantha’s story as she writes it within this story. It’s a great two-for!

Cozy Mystery Within a Mystery
This is another episode in the Mystery Bookshop series. The book is actually a mystery inside a mystery. Our heroine is attempting to solve a real-life crime while she is also writing a murder mystery. As readers, we get to enjoy 2 developing stories and solve 2 mysteries. It is such fun! The plot is tight with plenty of suspects and motives in both stories. All of the characters are well developed. This is the first of this series that I have read and it makes me want more! I will be reading all of this author's work that I can. I received this ARC book for free and this is my honest review.

The Novel Art of Murder is the 3rd Mystery Bookshop mystery by V.M. Burns. I really love this series so much. I love all the characters: Sam, Nana Jo, Dawson, and the girls from Shady Acres. They're all such fun to read about. I do wish Sam had more friends her age to interact with. I mean, I'm assuming she had friends before her husband died and she opened the bookstore. So, where are they? It just seems a little strange to me. The thing I really enjoy about this series is that there's two mystery stories going on since Sam is writing a murder mystery as well. I get just as invested in Sam's mystery writing as I do the main mystery. I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series to see what happens to Sam and everyone else next.

Note: I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my fair and honest review.

This is the third book to this series about Sam,Nana Jo and her friends the best read so far.
Loved the fact that Sam also writes about Historical Mysteries with in the book to solve.
Nana Jo and her seniors friends humor is brilliant through out as they join together and help Sam solve the mystery .
Thank you Kensington books and netgalley for giving me a chance to read and review this very enjoyable book.

#65 I love books about books, bookstores, in other words, all things tomes and The Novel Art of Murder by V. M. Burns certainly fills the bill. Part of the Mystery Bookshop series, this cozy includes a cast of endearing senior citizens who must solve not one, but two murders at Shady Acres. The information about Operation Paperclip was fascinating. Release date November 27.

This is the third book in the series, and my favourite so far!
The main character is also a writer, so there is a bonus in that there are two mysteries to solve within the book, which is a bonus and not a distraction from either story.
The mysteries were well written and kept me guessing!
I especially enjoy the senior citizens, who were written as smart, full of life and entertaining.
I look forward to reading the next in the series.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Just loved this group of ‘crime solvers’ who use their years of making contacts to help find the killer. Senior characters are so varied while the.younger generation puts the clues together while juggling romances, family and friendship

I'm not a big fan of British historical mysteries, but this mystery within a mystery draws me in every time. I honestly can't decide which one I like more anymore. This style is so inventive and fun and I enjoy reading her books. It doesn't hurt that I grew up in Northern Indiana and love all the references to places I'm familiar with.. Look forward to more adventures with Sam and her crazy group of seniors!

I received a free copy of THE NOVEL ART OF MURDER (Book 3 of the Mystery Bookshop Mysteries) by V.M. Burns in exchange for an honest review. Samantha Washington is close to her grandmother and her grandmother’s friends. When a woman her grandmother recently argued with and threatened is murdered in a locked room, Nana Jo is the primary suspect. Sam is able to cut a deal with the detective; she’ll find the murderer by Thanksgiving and give him the credit, or he can arrest her grandmother. When one of Nana Jo’s friends is present during the poisoning of another retirement home resident, Sam has to figure out how the homicides are linked. Through it all, Sam takes the time to write a World War II era murder mystery of her own.

I haven’t read the other books in the series, so I don’t think I had the connection to the characters I could have had. Over all, this story was pretty entertaining. You get the bonus of two mystery books for the price of one.

#TheNovelArtOfMurder #NetGalley

The Novel Art of Murder by V.M. Burns is book three in her Mystery Bookshop series and captured my attention from the first page.

I confess that I love this series and am always excited when another book is ready for release. Ms. Burns' writing is descriptive and her characters are realistic, likable and quirky which adds to the fun as I read. I am also a fan of historical cozy mysteries so I get two for one with this series.

The plot moved quickly with plenty twists, clues and red herrings to keep me guessing and turning the pages. The suspects were a devious lot that kept Sam, Nana Jo and the rest of the Sleuthing Seniors Book Club working hard to ferret out their history. I do love Nana Jo's friends and truly wish I could meet them and spend some quality time with them. I confess that I caught on to who the killer might be before Sam did this time and was quite elated when I was proved right. I almost never figure it out before the reveal. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.