How lucky would it be to have a bookshop in your family that gets passed to the next generation? Ellie Christie and her sister return to the little ski town to take over their family mystery bookshop that has a resident cat named Agatha. Could there be a more picturesque setting? I think not.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. Ellie isn't in town long before a body is discovered in a ski gondola, one of her employees goes missing, and a bunch of other connections to her shop gets her entangled in all of the town drama. Isn't that always the way? I really liked the characters and banter in this cozy, and the winter vibes were on point. In true cozy fashion, we get food and book descriptions, very little icky gore, and a vague love interest. I liked being along for the ride. I'll pick up the next installment that comes out soon!

Short Synopsis: Ellie returns to Colorado to help run her family bookshop, when A winter whiteout has everyone trapped and a man is found dead on the gondola.

My thoughts: I adored this small ski town in Colorado, it totally gave me vibes of a similar town in Utah with a particular bookshop I love to visit whenever I'm there! The characters were great especially the Cat Agatha. I think every bookstore should have a bookshop cat! As a huge fan of books about books, the bookshop was the perfect location for such a fun cozy mystery.

This had such a fun cast of characters spun off Agatha Christie and her mysteries. The townspeople were so fun and typical of a small town, had to have their noses in everyone else's business. I thoroughly enjoyed trying to solve the case along with the amateur sleuths.

Read if you love:
- Cozy mysteries
- Ski mountain settings
- Agatha Christie
- Bookshops and cats
- Sisterly sleuths

This mystery will be great for my students. They will enjoy unraveling the clues and story building up to the end. They will also be so happy to know that it's a series and can look forward to new books being added to their library.

I love the idea of this book but the writing just doesn't grab me. It took me two months to get through it. I just didn't care enough to sit down and continue reading for long periods. The mystery was interesting, and as a librarian, I love books related to bookstores. I really can't explain why I didn't particularly like it but I didn't. If you like cozy mysteries, give it a shot, but don't expect an "edge of your seat" mystery - it's slow even for a cozy mystery

What a cute story about death and deceit.

The Christie sisters and family love their little nook of a bookstore in a picturesque ski town. I would love to have a place like theirs.

This story is entertaining and keeps you guessing as to who did it and where the missing employee is.

Thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy of this book in exchange for honest opinion and review.
Dead and Gondola is a cute and breezy whodunit. The setting is a cute snowy mountain setting and the story has fun characters and a store kitty that was too adorable! Quick and easy read. Killer was easy to spot but I still enjoyed the reveal. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4!

Picture this: It’s winter in a small, stars hollow esque town in Colorado. A fresh layer of powder has just been dropped and locals and tourists alike are swarming the town on their way to the slopes. Downtown a small bookshop is hosting their monthly mystery book club, complete with special guest. The night is going smoothly except for a mysterious guest who is acting a little too strange for comfort. And then your famous guest decides to hijack the meeting with a seance that ends with a ouija board that spells out dead man. Other than some weird vibes, nothing happens until a few days later the mysterious stranger ends up dead…

Things are definitely off to an interesting start for our July pick - Dead and Gondola by Ann Claire. This is the first book in a cozy mystery series that promises food literary fun. And honestly, I don’t think it delivered. There are a lot of issues with the storytelling and the writing that left me slogging through this one just wanting it to end already. This month’s title is rated PG for Adults and includes the tame content warnings of murder, larceny, and lying. It ended up with a CAWPILE rating of 3 which equals a whopping 2 stars out of five.

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.
Dead and Gondola is just the read you need after a summer of HEAVY fiction. Full of book loving intrigue, twisty mystery, endearing and annoying characters, as well as sister love and families made out of people who just care about each other. A fun read for the stormy night at my house last night. Loved it.

Ellie has recently returned to run the family bookstore with her sister Meg. Ellie lives in an apartment above the store. A stranger who had visited their shop was found dead in a gondola that takes people down the mountain. The only road in is blocked and Ellie and Meg must figure out who killed the stranger before Ellie becomes the next victim. Old friends and new help, or do they? Ellie needs all her instincts to figure out who the trust before it's too late.

A fun cozy mystery! Recommended if you love books, bookstores, golden age mysteries, and sleepy little ski towns. Will be looking forward to future installments.

Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for e-ARC of the book.

The Christie family owns a Book Chalet in a small town in Colorado. Besides A common last name this family shares passion for books and mysteries with famous Agatha Christie. The calm small town life is disturbed when a mysterious visitor dies in a ski gondola. The Christie family can't stay away from investigation not only because of curiosity but as the dead man left some mysterious clues at their bookshop.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was really hard for me to put it down. I wanted to spend more time with wonderful characters and coziness of a small town.

I liked this one about two sisters who own a bookstore...anything involving books always grabs my attention! The title of the series is based on the sisters' last name: Christie. They are typical small town store owners. They love their customers and they just gave it a feel of a small town family owned bookstore where I would frequent. It also made sense that they named their cat Agatha (obviously after the mystery writer, Agatha Christie).

I was a bit overwhelmed at first by all of the characters introduced in such a quick fashion that it lost me. I don't like having to go back and re-discover who this or that character is because I wasn't given enough info on him/her before moving on to the next, so that was a downfall of the book/plot for me. I am strong on characterization and I feel like this book fell short on that aspect.

As it continued and there were twists in the story, that really helped my pleasure of reading this cozy mystery. So I ended up liking it but I wanted to love it.

This was a fun and free spirited. The was some parts that were hard to get through. The characters were fun and entertaining. I would recommend this to friends and family. Look forward to what the author has in store if there’s more to the series

I was intrigued by the title and book blurb, and had high hopes for Dead and Gondola, but sadly, I was disappointed. I found it to be too fast paced, with no time to actually get to know the characters. I even had trouble remembering the names of the mains. The story itself was okay, no great revelations nor twists to keep you interested. As a first attempt, I found it pretty good, just not great. I think there's a lot to play with, and if the author continues to grow and improve, I feel she'll have a nice series. Thanks to Net galley and/or the publisher for giving me this title in exchange for an honest review

A nice cozy, the mystery is really secondary to the setting and characters, and this one captures a book lovers paradise, with a side of murder.

This book had great characterization, excellent story telling, and made me want to keep reading. I will continue to read from this author and look out for their new releases.

I was definitely intrigued by the premise of a mystery taking place in a bookshop. I wasn't super invested in the mystery which made this book harder to get through for me. I did like the connection to Agatha Christie and thought it was a fun element to incorporate. I did love the grumpy bookstore cat, Agatha. The Christie sisters felt a little flat to me and I wish they had been fleshed out a little more.

“Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Christie returns to her hometown to run the family bookshop with older sister Meg in the absence of their parents. The Book Chalet sits atop the small mountain town of Last Word, Colorado, which is only accessible by ski gondola or one single road full of treacherous twists and turns. The shop’s endless bookshelves and mountain views are famous but play second fiddle to Agatha, resident cat and mascot. Up and down the mountain, all is wintery and quiet . . . until a stranger dies inside a ski gondola! The only two witnesses are Ellie and Meg who were trying to return a first-edition Agatha Christie novel he left at Book Chalet when he disrupted a book club meeting. When the police identify the victim, Last Word residents are shocked to discover the victim isn’t a stranger, and the list of potential suspects skyrockets. A rockslide prevents anyone from leaving town, but no one is talking. As resident booksellers familiar with the townfolk, the Christie sisters go to work, channeling their namesake and her beloved character Miss Marple. Their detective skills are quickly put to the test when the police take a closer look at some of their closest friends. Will the evidence condemn the wrong person, or is the murderer closer to home than first suspected?”

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Bantam, an imprint of Ballantine & Random House, through NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

If you struggle with winter blues, might I suggest this cozy mystery and a piping hot mug of cocoa? I guarantee you’ll like cold temperatures and snow a little bit more by the final page . . . minus the murder of course! Last Word, Colorado, is a winter wonderland, and the Book Chalet is a reader’s paradise, owned by the Christie family and currently run by sisters Ellie and Meg under the watchful eyes of their cat Agatha. They didn’t choose the detective life, but it definitely found them. Some of the neighbors have affectionately dubbed their efforts as “Marpling,” for obvious reasons.

Their partners in crime-solving are their beloved grandmother and Meg’s daughter Rosie. Rosie is a teenager keeping the adults on their toes with her wit and tech knowledge. Gram is doing her very best to keep up with the times, though she often runs into the formidable foe we all know as “spellcheck.” She has texted “Huzzah is hot in loving” instead of “Lasagna is hot in oven” and “Deep veiled trombones” instead of “Deep vein thrombosis.” Don’t even lie, that gave you a good chuckle! Additionally, there are a number of colorful characters from the town, every single one of them possessing a clear cut personality and unique backstory. Everyone played their part well, and no one stood out for the wrong reasons . . . well, maybe the murderer, but you know what I mean.

It took me a few months to finish “Dead and Gondola”, but the blame falls entirely on my reading slump. In spite of all the false starts and long breaks, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ann Claire’s first cozy mystery, which is a funny joke if you know she’s written others under different pseudonyms. There’s room for improvement in the sequel so I’m settling on a rating of four stars. However, don’t be surprised if I reread this in the future and bump that number up. I can’t wait for more of the Christie family and the Book Chalet and whatever else Last Word, Colorado, wants to throw at me!

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Content Breakdown: Alcohol, Attempted Murder & Murder, Blood, a Car Accident, a Concussion & Resulting Amnesia, Divorce (brief mention), Drugs & Drugging, Drunk Driving (brief mention), Exotic Dancers (brief mention), a Nightmare (brief mention & description), a Ouija Board, Poison & Poisoning (brief mention), Prison & Parole, Robbery, a Séance, & Suicide (brief mention)

Two briefly sensual moments: A romance book cover is described as a bare-chested duke & lusty duchess. When Meg & Syd hear mysterious moans & she wants to investigate, he suggests it might be a couple who wants to be alone.

This was the first contemporary mystery I've read, and it served as an excellent introduction to the genre! I feel like I would have enjoyed it a bit more if the pacing had been a bit more even, although the fact that it was a mystery novel made the pacing less of an issue. The chalet bookshop served as a great escape, and I look forward to other books in the series (especially if they include more cats!)
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC!

Rating: 2/5 Stars

When Ellie Christie finds herself back home in her tiny Colorado town, running the Agatha Christie themed family bookshop, Book Chalet, with her older sister, Meg, murder is the both the first thing and last thing on her mind.

When the appearance of a mysterious stranger disrupts their book club meeting and later ends up dead, the list of suspects starts to grow.

The Christie family goes on an unsubtle amateur sleuthing as the snow piles high around the town. When a close family friend ends up as the prime suspect, Ellie and Meg have to find the killer. Can they do it in time and prevent more disasters in their cozy little town?

This one just wasn’t my cup of tea, it was silly at times but the plot was too bumpy. I couldn’t focus on the story or characters long enough to form a deep a attachment.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House - Ballantine and Ann Claire for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.