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.

I liked Last Word, Colorado and the bookshop the Book Chalet. It was interesting not knowing the murder victim's name. Gram and the cat Agatha C. Christie are my favorite characters.

I received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

This was the perfect bad weather sit inside all day and read type of cozy mystery. I loved that it was set in a book shop and had lots of bookish references. I loved solving the mystery with the main characters.

I'm so late to the (review) party, but I have to say, I picked the perfect time to read this debut cozy mystery. It's ski season after all and, much like the characters in this first book in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series, I live in a small mountain town that's getting hammered with snow. Ann Claire's Dead and Gondola is a classic cozy mystery. Let me count the ways:
-main character, Ellie Christie, is an amateur sleuth 
-Ellie runs her family bookshop in a fictional small town cutely but plausibly called Last Word, Colo. (have you looked at place names on a map of Colorado?)
-the bookshop's cat is called Agatha, and Agatha has attitude, and a huge Insta following
-Ellie runs The Book Chalet with her sister, Meg, and they get lots of help from their Gram and Meg's daughter Rosie
-Gram knits and bakes muffins. So. Many. Muffins.
-lots of Last Word locals read mysteries, enough to form the Mountains of Mystery book club
-one of the club members is a local society reporter and gossip columnist, helpful in filling in blanks.

Those sensitive to overwriting, to metaphor-, simile- and descriptor-overload, be warned. Maybe too many muffins in one basket. But if you're a cozy mystery fan, this is one to slide into. 

[Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

Ellie Christie might be related to Agatha Christie. That connection and her love for reading entice her to settle in a Colorado hamlet and operate her family's Book Chalet. But when a mysterious bookshop visitor dies under murderous circumstances, Ellie and her sister Meg decide to help solve the crime. Their cat, Gram (a knitting Miss Marple wanna-be), and several neighbors help, too. Many of the helpers know the man, though, and might be holding a grudge against him. Could one of Ellie's new friends or even a trusted employee be out to harm her or someone she loves?
I enjoyed the book references. And the town sounds delightful! I want to visit the Book Chalet and other shops!
The family's relationship and teamwork inspire me, too - except they always get along, which is unrealistic.
And I really like the cat! He helps solve the crime!
I had trouble imagining the setting, though. I get that the town includes stores and homes on the top and the bottom of the hill. And the buildings resemble a Swiss chalet. But I'm confused about why they need a gondola since the upper part of the town is accessible by car.
Also, I never connected emotionally with any of the characters except Ms. Ridge - probably because she was bullied by a famous actress and I felt sorry for her.

A cute and fun break from some heavier #bookreviews this week - this was the cutest #cozymystery with a dash of Agatha Christie sprinkled in for kicks.

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This one takes place in a cozy, small ski town, where two sisters own and operate a bookstore that’s been in the family for generations. After their #bookclub recreates a seance scene from Agatha Christie’s first standalone #novel, The Sittaford Mystery, a ouija board informs them that death is in their midst.

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Laughing it off, the sisters head back home for the day, taking the gondola down the mountain on their usual route. When they get off the gondola, though, they are shocked to discover that the seemingly well man in the gondola directly ahead of them is very much dead - and thus, this small town #murdermystery #whodunnit begins.

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A perfect little #book if you need a break from heavier, more intense, but still want some mystery.

Okay I just need to admit that cozy mysteries are simply not my thing. This book was chock filled with characters, even interesting ones, yet I slogged through this, somehow finishing it. The writing was lovely, great descriptions, interesting plot and twist but nothing ever hooked me or made my heart race. I learned a lot about Agatha Christie (the author) and also love the character of Agatha Christie (the cat). Overall just okay and now I know not to dive into cozies anymore.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review.

To keep it short and simple this book had a very fun and interesting beginning that morphed into a very lackluster ending.

I absolutely groaned reading the “twist”, there were so many other ways it could've gone and almost any of them would've been more engaging to read about than what actually happened. For me, there were too many "central" characters that we spent time on only to have their story be dropped and puttered under a nearby rug to be forgotten. I absolutely grew to loathe every mention of seances in this sleuthing village, which is quite unfortunate as it started out so delightful!

I wanted to see more exploration of the reasoning for the death and the investigation. Everything was flat-out told and not shown. I could feel the personalities of the town bubbling just below the surface of the writing and desperately wanted to reach through the pages and yank them out.

Definition of an easy, cozy mystery read, but without the warm fun feeling at the end. Not sure that I'd pursue the second book in this series (unless Agatha the Cat dropped it off at my door). However, it did hold my attention through until the end, and had the ending not been so eye-rolling, I would've marked this a bit higher I believe.

Ellie Christie and her sister, Meg, have taken over the family book shop, assisted by their grandmother. Located in a ski town accessible by gondola, the shop and town sound unbelievably bucolic. Until a man is found dead at the same time the road to town is blocked. A bookstore employee disappears, and Ellie begins to rekindle a high school romance.

The premise of this book, the first in a series, is promising, but the slow pace is a hindrance. There are too many characters under suspicion and not enough action. Hopefully future entries in the series will overcome these obstacles. #DeadandGondola #NetGalley

Dead and Gondola is a fun mystery set in the mountains of Colorado. The Book Chalet, owned and run by sisters Meg and Ellie, is a quiet retreat for anyone who loves books. One day during their book club, a mysterious man shows up looking for someone. Soon after, their most faithful worker disappears, and a murder shakes the small town. A cozy bookshop, a sweet grandmother, and a grumpy bookstore cat make this book hard to resist. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see what the sisters are up to now!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy!