A fun and page turning cozy mystery. Enjoyed the story and read it in one sitting. Highly recommend. Can't wait for more!!

Proof of Murder, the fourth book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mysteries series by Lauren Elliott, finds Addie in her very own “Locked Room” murder mystery. With quite a dislikeable victim and suspects aplenty, Addie uses her most ingenious sleuthing capabilities to unravel the clues she uncovers before there are more victims. Ms Elliott is truly gifted in keeping her readers enthralled and the pages turning and to an unpredictable culprit.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. My honest review is being submitted voluntarily.

I ate this cozy up! It kept me on my toes and was extremely entertaining. It kept me guessing until the end. I really love Addie as a MC. I'm also a sucker for reading books ABOUT books. Really liked this!

Proof of Murder by Lauren Elliott is the fourth book of the cozy Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. Each book of this series contains it’s own mystery to solve so they could be read as a standalone or in any order. However, one would get to know the characters better reading the series in order with some character development carrying over book to book.

In the first book of this series, Murder by the Book, readers were introduced to Addison Greyborne who had returned to her hometown, a small New England town that had been named for her ancestors back in Colonial times. Addie had been still recovering from the murder of her fiance, her father dying in a tragic accident and then had found out a long lost aunt had also died but left her whole estate to Addie.

Addie’s inheritance had given her the opportunity to start over and continue to work with books after leaving her job at the Boston Public Library. With her aunt having so many rare books in her collection and the funds to open a shop Addie decided to open Beyond the Page bookstore despite not everyone in town being overly welcoming. Now Addie finds herself in a supposedly haunted mansion trying to solve a murder in a locked room.

I have been following the Beyond the Page Bookstore series from the beginning and it isn’t quite as quirky and humorous as I normally prefer but I have still enjoyed reading. The books started off feeling like it had a touch of romantic suspense to it as Addie got close to the police chief and worked together instead of completely on her own in most cozies. As the series goes on I keep finding myself coming back and with this fourth book of the series I would again rate it at three and a half stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is the 4th book in this series but the first one I’ve read. It’s an engaging story of a “ haunted mansion” where several people have died mysteriously in the past. In this story the contents of the mansion are to be sold at auction along with the mansion for back taxes. Before the sale can begin an appraiser is found dead in a locked room and several valuable books have disappeared from that room. There are several mysteries contained in this story. Was the dead appraiser murdered, even though it appears to be a heart attack, and what happened to the missing books? There are also some strange occurrences at the local book store owned by the main character. The plot is complex and held my interest from the beginning.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters. It’s evident that most of the relationships were developed in the earlier books in the series. I’m looking forward to reading these earlier books along with the next ones.

This is a good cozy mystery series. The mystery kept me guessing and I enjoy the supporting characters. Glad the love triangle came to an end. It was the one annoying aspect of the book. Wish Marc was leaving town though, with his girlfriend. I hate all the friction.

I really loved this book in a new to my series. Tha characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end

Searching for more books to stock her store before the first cruise ship docks in her town, Addie Greyborne heads out to an auction at a local so-called haunted house to survey the offerings. There, she runs into a colleague who enlists her help in cataloging the books. Everything is fine until the next morning when the woman she was assisting is found dead in a locked room. Even though this was the first I've read in the series, I did not feel the need to have read others to enjoy this one. The mystery was interesting, as were the characters and their relationships.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this delightful cozy mystery! This is the 4th in the series and it can be read as a stand alone although its always nice to "grow" alone with the characters. I have not read all of the series, only #3 and Proof of Murder I enjoyed so much more. One thing I did not like in the 3rd book was the silly love triangle but in this book Im happy to say it is resolved! I look forward to reading more in the series!

The fourth book in one of my favorite new mystery series. The mystery was just ok but I really enjoyed how the characters interacted.

Title: Proof of Murder

Author: Lauren Elliott



Ch: 34



Pg: 304



Series: Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery book 4



Genre: Cozy Mystery



Rating: 3 Stars



Publisher: Kensington



Proof of Murder is the fourth book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series by Lauren Elliott. Addie Greyborne has found herself involved in another murder and again she’s a prime suspect. And she have to clear her name and fast.

Proof of Murder of Murder wasn’t my favorite of the series but I still enjoyed it. It kept me guessing from beginning to end. But the character plot this time fell flat for me. However it’s not enough to stop me from reading the next book in the series when it comes out.





I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

I am becoming a huge fan of the cozy mystery genre due to books like this. You can read this as an escape from the everyday in a weekend. A really good mystery.

This was an entertaining, well-written book. I loved revisiting the characters and town. The mystery was well crafted, and I could not guess who did it.

Addie Greyborne, the bookshop owner in Greyborne Harbor still isn't fully accepted by the locals so when she has visited an estate sale in the town and is one of the people who finds the appraiser dead, suspicions are rampant and Addie is forced to try to discern what happened before she is blamed.
An interesting locked room murder with "ghosts" that take rare books and scare others to death!

Fun series, looking for more!

I wanted to like this book a lot more. I picked up the previous books in the series to gear up to read this one. Overall the writing is strong & the premise is good but my sticking point was the protagonist. She’s not very likeable & I found her petulance to be too distracting. This could just be me, so I still think based on the author’s writing skills people could enjoy the series quite a lot. I would still try another new series by the author down the line.

Another excellent edition to a wonderful series! Full of twists and turns that leaves you wanting more and enjoying each moment until the end when the killer is caught!

Local bookshop owner Addie Greyborne is excited to see a preview of a local mansion's estate sale, due to knowing the right people. The book is intriguing in several ways--there is a missing cousin, haunted mansion, rare Sherlock Holmes editions by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a locked room murder! If it sounds busy, it is, but the story moves quickly as Addie is in turn questioned and then utilized for information about the books and state of the room. Her personal life takes up a bit of the story too, I hope that all settles down and everyone can be friends.

This series tends to be a mixed bag for me. I've read all 4 now and will likely continue to read them. I think Elliott has a great setting going--both the physical setting of the New England seaside and the more pronounced setting of the used and rare book store our protagonist Addie owns. There's a decent cast of secondary characters and the mysteries tend to be fun. (I especially like the cantankerous bakery owner next door to Addie's shop!)

I am one of those readers, though, who can't fall in love with the protagonist. She just isn't my cup of tea. Often, there are character interactions that make me wonder why anyone in the books like her at all. In this book, I had one other particular issue [SPOILER AHEAD]: I kept feeling like I missed a book in the series. I looked several times to make sure there wasn't an entry that I skipped over. The biggest draw to cozy mysteries for me is the character development. At the end of Book 3, Addie has the love triangle clearly in play (again) and it looks like she's going to have to make a big decision between Marc and Simon. Then, BAM! This book starts 6 months later and we discover that Marc proposed in the interim, she turned him down, he went away and got a new girlfriend, and Addie is trying to make things work with Simon. It seems like those are developments that might have better worked on rather than off "screen," so to speak. In fact, it could have just been done in the Book 3 if the author was ready to move on. So it was a little disorienting to me to jump into this entry with so much having happened between novels. I guess I would say, in Elliott's defense, that she has done this before (like, starting the whole series AFTER a huge life event for Addie--the death of her father and murder of her fiancé--that would normally be the basis for a first book).

My final recommendation is that if you like cozy mysteries and this setting and background appeal to you, then go ahead and give this is shot. Despite my gripes, I tend to enjoy reading these and will most certainly be back for the next entry in the series!

Addie is headed to a local estate sale to purchase books for her bookstore. There is something fishy going on with the management of the sale. Now with two dead bodies and someone trying to prevent Addie from solving the mystery it's a closed room mystery straight out of a murder mystery. This is book 4 in the Beyond the Page Bookstore series. I enjoy this small town set in Connecticut and it's residents. I like Ms Elliott's writing style, nothing to graphic but a good murder to solve. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

And enjoyable fourth book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. I liked the characters and their interaction with each other, and the storyline.

Thank you to the publisher, Kensington, and to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor.