I was super excited for this novel because I do love Agatha Christie and I'm always open to trying a cozy mystery series. I liked how you could tell that the author was an Agatha Christie fan, and how that was incorporated into the plot. I also really liked Ellie and Meg and the fact that this took place in a bookstore because I love bookstores.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

#bookreview Dead and Gondola (Christie Bookshop #1) by Ann Claire

🤔where did ya come from?🤷🏼‍♀️
- eARC from the publisher via NetGalley

😍the good stuff😍
- Agatha the internet famous bookshop cat 🐈
- Small town vibes
- Cozy mystery
- I didn’t guess the murderer although I didn’t feel terribly invested to try?

🫢my complaints🤫
- Slow moving for me.
- Not my usual choice of genre, so that’s kinda on me. I really wanted to like it more based on the premise and all the book love going on.

⚠️the warnings⚠️
- Mention of murder via stabbing. Not graphic tho.
- Mention of overdose.

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cute and cozy mystery set in a snowy Colorado town, easy read with and unexpected twist in the end. I would recommend if you like a cute, sweet mystery.

Cozy mystery with likable characters. Super cute, charming story. And who doesn’t love a grumpy cat named Agatha

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

Great book to spend a rainy afternoon reading. Atmospheric, easy to fall into. Would recommend this book and author to friends.

nn Claire, author of several series written under different pseudonyms, has created a new series, designed to lure avid fans of both Golden Age mysteries and cozies. This homage to Agatha Christie
has it all. Multiple characters, set in an isolated locale. Here Claire brings her knowledge of Colorado to the forefront. After reading Dead and Gondola, I am ready to hit the slopes.

A family owned bookstore, a cat named Agatha, and a very dead body allow the reader to dive into
the escapades of the Christie sisters, Meg and Ellie. Their store, the Book Chalet, is one of the leading tourist, and townies destinations. Will a corpse, along with the disappearance of a beloved worker end the families livelihood? A galloping pace, with great dialogue and a clever mystery create a strong
foundation for this new series. Highly recommended for mystery fans of all ages.

There is a new fella in town. Others know him but the Christie's don't. He goes for a ride on the gondola and ends up dead. Who killed him?
Bantam book and Net Galley that they allowed me to read (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

There are many suspects and the police chief is on their trail. The Christie's are trying to figure out who the killer is, too.

It's a very busy book with several people arrested. They get let go and the hunt is still on.

One lady has changed her name. One of the Christies is developing a boyfriend. One person confesses.

But I had no idea who the real killer was...

This absolutely pains me, since I had high hopes given the description - an Agatha Christie-inspired mystery set in a bookstore... perhaps I've lost my taste for the cozy mystery genre, but I could not get past 17%. The stilted and forced dialogue, the cartoonish characters and silly names - and throwing far too many characters with thin backstories and sequence of events that felt thrown together and disjointed - made me lose patience and interest almost immediately. Too many other books out there waiting for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author of the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The stage is set as a cute cozy mystery in the mountains of Colorado in a small ski town. The main character, Ellie, has recently moved back to town to help run her family's bookstore with her big sister, Meg. The family, whose last name is Christie, continually references their love for Agatha Christie, even if they have been unable to find a familial link. This sleepy tourist attraction of a town is turned on its head when a mystery stranger arrives in town, only to be found murdered a few hours later. The Christie sisters accidentally get caught up in the middle of everything, and get to sleuthing, trying to solve the case alongside the police. The premise of the book is exactly what you'd expect from a cozy mystery. The atmosphere sounds charming, and the characters are witty but sweet. There are hints at different love interests without anything explicit. The murderer ended up being quite obvious, but I wasn't expecting to be shocked given the genre. However, there were some aspects that detracted from my overall star rating. First, I was annoyed by how often the author reiterated Ellie's love for reading and what a bookworm she is. As a self proclaimed book lover, I was able to tolerate more mentions than another reader might, but even I found it to become too repetitive. We get it -- this girl loves to read!. Second, I would have liked the characters to have been a little more flushed out and developed. If that had been more enhanced, a lot more of the story could have been shown, rather than explicitly told to the reader. All in all, it is a quick read that I would recommend picking up on a snowy winter night when you're in the mood to be transported to a small mountain village.

Thank you #NetGalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.

🚡 This was a fun cozy mystery! It is the first book in a series.

🚡 I love the punny titles used for cozies and this one is definitely cute!

🚡 There is a bookstore prominently featured in the story and it is owned by a family who are distantly related to Agatha Christie! And there is a cat…. named Agatha!!! And everyone (well, almost!) in the story is a book lover! What’s not to love about all of that?

🚡 This is a quick read, very easy to follow, and was a fun little mystery to solve while I was recently traveling. Cozies always tie everything up with a nice little bow at the end and this one was no exception.

🚡 If you like cozies, particularly ones with bookstores and cats, then this one's for you! I’m looking forward to reading book two in this series.

Thank you @NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam for an eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This was such a fun mystery and I hope there are more Christie Bookshop stories in the future! The book is set in a snow covered Colorado town - a skiing paradise. Access by road is marginal, and people travel via gondola to the upper and lower areas. Ellie and her sister Meg run a bookshop, and after a mystery night séance a man is found dead.

As you can probably tell, I liked the setting. I also really liked the Christie family and I thought their investigations were clever and not too stupid (so many cozy mysteries seem to feature one dumb decision after another). The side characters were a lot of fun too, and the mystery kept me guessing.

What a delightful cozy crafted by Ann Claire! I really enjoyed the bookstore location and bookish theme of #deadandgondola and would read more books featuring Meg, Gran, Rosie, Ellie and, of course, Agatha. I thank #netgalley and #bantam for this ebook to read and review, all opinions are my own.

3.5 overall I liked that the shop owners weren't the murder suspects in this book. That is a frequently and sometimes overused plot in cozy mysteries that causes characters to act irrationally and implicate themselves further. The bookshop family, the Christies (with no official relation), LOVE murder and mysteries. The cute small tourist town was a nice setting for the mystery drawing in a wide cast of possible suspects. We got little glimpses of the townspeople that would be introduced in future books I'm sure, and spent more time with those knee deep in the investigation. Nosy small towns are always involved and gossiping. But also constantly talking about being priced out of their own town which led to our conflict.

I liked that the police chief didn't settle for one suspect but kept her mind open to new evidence and possibilities as things developed. I got tired of the "influencer personality" quickly and find that they take away from stories anymore. The wrap up was clean and made sense with enough of a twist that I liked it. Nothing felt too farfetched or unbelievable. I would be interested in a sequel.

If you find yourself missing those cozy winter days as the days are starting to get longer and warmer and you also love a great mystery then this is the perfect book for you. First I have to say it has some of the most amazing characters I've gotten the chance to read in a long time. They alone will have you completely in love with this story, but it’s the suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat, unable to put the book down. I will warn though, this book may have you running out to get every Agatha Christie book you can find so you can be as well versed in her works as the Christie sisters. I highly recommend this book to any mystery fan.

Thank you for Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. This was a fun cozy mystery with Agatha Christie themed. Will recommend.

3.5
A cute cozy mystery! I put off reading this for entirely too long and I regret it! I’m not a cozy mystery reader usually but I liked the Agatha Christie theme and the characters were lovable. And the fact it’s set it a chalet bookshop with a crew of book lovers!? When does number 2 come out??

Thanks Net Galley for the ARC!

I absolutely adore cozy mysteries, so I might be a bit bias here! I love to easiness of this read, the fun shocking reveals and the cuteness of it being set in a Swiss Hamlet and a cute little bookstore at the top of a mountain! Someone was found dead on a Gondola that takes you to the bookstore when Ellie and her sister meg have to use all their knowledge of Agatha Christie novels in order to solve it! This was definitely a cute story and I am interested in reading other cozy mysteries by this author.

Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She’s recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family’s historic bookshop with her elder sister, Meg, and their beloved cat, Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintry whiteout. A man is found dead on the gondola, and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown—no one in, no one out.

The victim was a mysterious stranger who’d visited the bookshop. At the time, his only blunders had been disrupting a book club and leaving behind a first-edition Agatha Christie novel, written under a pseudonym. However, once revealed, the man’s identity shocks the town. Motives and secrets swirl like the snow, but when the police narrow in on the sisters’ close friends, the Christies have to act.

Although the only Agatha in their family tree is their cat, Ellie and Meg know a lot about mysteries and realize they must summon their inner Miss Marple to trek through a blizzard of clues before the killer turns the page to their final chapter.

I love reading books about characters who love to read books, and books that have bookish settings! Dead and Gondola is a cozy mystery that centers around a small wintery town with a quaint bookshop. Ellie Christie, as her last name might suggest, is a mystery genre aficionado who works in the family bookstore, helping to lead a small book club. With a set of likable characters, red herrings, and somewhat impractical clues, I had fun joining Ellie as she tried to deduce who might have murdered the person found on the town gondola. I am giving the book three stars instead of four because I thought it was a little long, and some parts were hard to stay engaged with. It took me a little longer than usual to get through it.