Great, another cozy mystery series I love! I guess that's not a bad thing! This was super cute cozy and I love the relationship Jay and Cindy have! I am excited to read more about them and their store!! Adding Zac Bissonnette's book to my TBR!

#AKillinginCostumes
#NetGalley

This is a delightful first in a new cozy mystery series about two queer sleuths and best friends who own a movie memorabilia store.

I loved:
🎬 Jay and Cindy's friendship
🎬 Details of movies, movie props, and the memorabilia business
🎬 The portrayal of Cindy's grief over the death of her wife.
🎬 Other cozy details-the older sidekick, descriptions of food (and what cookbook it's from), songs, albums, and vinyl records

🎬 The dual points of view which are enhanced by the audio performance

Jay and Cindy have a store, Hooray for Hollywood, which sells authentic memorabilia from old time movies, The business is struggling but they've been given the opportunity to meet with an old Hollywood star who has a large collection of movie costumes that she wants to sell. If they get the costume consignment, the business will boom. But there is another company in the running for the consignment as well. When the representative from the other company is murdered, Cindy and Jay are the prime suspects. They decide they have to find the real murderer before their business goes under.
A Killing in Costumes is the first in a new cozy mystery series by Zac Bissonnette.

I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#netgalley
#LGBTQ+
#moviememorability
#akillingincostumes
#mysteries
#zacbissonnette

This is a cozy mystery that felt like a Hallmark movie! Not super memorable and a middle of the road book for me.

This was a very entertaining book. I loved the duel narrators and their background added so much to the story. The plot itself was decent, but it was one of those "if there's too many red herrings, the only thing left is the culprit" and so I wasn't surprised at the end twist. The characters were fun, I loved Mary being the one to help keep Cindy and Jay on track, and all the references were great. The Miss Marple additions were also a great addition to the story. Well worth the listen.

Release Date: August 9, 2022

📖📖📖

Jay and Cindy are exes that remained best of friends. They even opened a Hollywood memorabilia shop! They find themselves competing to get an actress’s costume collection. When the rival owner ends up dead, all eyes are on Cindy and Jay. Can the find the real killer or will it be curtains for Jay and Cindy?

I liked this book. It was a little slow for me but I love old Hollywood so I pushed through. I really loved all the murder she wrote references and love. I wasn’t a fan of having two narratives, it really threw me off. I’ll most likely give the series a second chance with the next book and then make a final determination.

#akillingincostumes #zacbissonnette #hollywoodtreasuresmystery #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #cozymysteryseries #dreamscapemedia

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* pretty good cozy mystery, not sure i like the series enough to read more but would recommend

Don't be surprised if, well, you're surprised by the ending! The mystery itself kept me guessing, even when I thought I had it figured out (I didn't!) The setting was so different than other mysteries with fun entertainment knowledge sprinkled in. The cast of characters were interesting and I am excited to see where they take me next, since I'm hoping this becomes a series! I listened to the audio version and loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and Zac Bissonnette for allowing me to listen to this amazing book. I’m a big cozy mystery reader so I knew I was going to like this from the start. However, I fell in love with it right away, with the old Hollywood memorabilia and all the bits with Columbo and Murder She Wrote (which by the way are 2 of my all time favorite shows) I watch Murder She Wrote every day!

The story was easy to follow and understand. I honestly didn’t figure it out until it was being explained to me! The ending was brilliant! I had it wrong the entire time! I’m not trying to give away too much here because everyone who likes cozy mysteries and older crime shows has to read this. The narrators do fantastic jobs!!!!

I loved that it was sex free and had no foul language, those are 2 big ones for me. I would love to see this go into a full series. I think you have a niche here with the old Hollywood memorabilia. I want to see if Jay and Simon Fletcher (love the name) hit it off and does Cindy ever decide to date again? I can just picture all the shenanigans Jay and Cindy can get up to in the future.

I adored and loved this book.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to listen to this book.

3.5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were once upon a time famed soap opera stars married in real life, until they got divorced and both came out as gay. Through it all they remained best friends. Jay has been working in Vegas doing small shows but when Cindy's wife tragically dies he moves back to Palm Springs to help her open their dream Hollywood memorabilia shop. They are approached by a former B-list actress who has amassed a large costume collection to sell her items before she passes away. When another consignment rival is murdered Jay and Cindy set out to find his killer since the handsome detective on the case suspects them. If they don't find the killer in time they could lose everything.
This is a campy murder mystery full of over zealous armature sleuths and a semi-incompetent detective. I liked the back drop of the Hollywood memorabilia store which allowed for lots of film and tv references. The premise is far fetched but it is a fun light read and a good recommendation for those who like the silly murder mystery novels. I had the audio version read by Melanie Carey & Paul Bellantoni who both did an excellent job, they were fun and easy to listen to.

This was another fun one for me. Jay and Cindy were married back in the day when they were soap opera stars, until their sexual preference came to light and they found they made better friends than husband and wife. Now they are business partners and curators in their Hollywood memorabilia business. This was full of twists and turns and had me guessing pretty much throughout. This was well written and was not cheesy at all.

A Killing in Costumes by Zac Bissonnette is entertaining with elements of the past and present cultures. It was a mixture of homage to the greats of the silver screen with present day dilemmas. The reader gets the viewpoints of Cindy and Jay throughout the mystery. Readers will enjoy listening to stars from different vintage Tinseltown movies. The narrators do a wonderful job in bringing Cindy and Jay to life.

This was a sweet little cozy mystery from an author who was new to me. This is the first book in a series and I will definitely be reading the rest as they come out. It was well written and moved along at a great pace.

This one was very Tommy and Tuppence- a sleuthing duo that needs more recognition (IMHO).

I loved the modern take of an Agatha Christie duo. While it was always referencing Hollywood (old and new) it also gave multiple nods to the queen of crime.

The premise that this couple was married, are not in love, BUT are best friends was super intriguing! I actually highlighted a favorite quote:

"Unexpectedly socially progressive too. In the best [n the best possible way. A show starring a mature woman who lives alone and is perfectly content and happy and productive. She creates her art and solves crimes. There's never any hint of her needing a man to complete her."

For me, that's what set it apart. It was a typical cozy mystery if you take that out of. the equation.

If this book was a movie genre it would be a hallmark movie. It has its niche of enjoyment but that niche is not me. I ended up skipping through half of it because the other felt the need to describe how the character was feeling and then add three more sentences all synonymous to that one feeling already described. I ended up screaming at the audiobook.
I liked the concept and I wish the author success but this is not for me.

-Disclaimer: I received this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.-

I like the cover art. But everything about this book fell flat. The narrators sound like those that read infomercials. I can't connect with the characters & they aren't interesting. The book focuses on a lot of extra detail which slows the pace. The writing style is typical. Overall, the way this book was put together made me lose interest quickly.

Thank you, Dreamscape Media!

A decent debut cozy mystery. Jay and Cindy make a perfect ex-couple working together as the perfect main characters. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. I did not guess “who done it“ at all early on in the story. I only guested a few moments right before it was revealed in the story. That is always a fabulous mystery as far as I am concerned.

I only gave 4 stars because there were a few moments during the story/narration, when I felt that the author was writing a paper… As in, they were doing a college research paper about the topic, and then decided to put some of the content of that paper directly into the book story without weaving the information into the plot/storyline, just plugging in the basic information. I do realize that there was an actual informational section about Hollywood memorabilia at the end of the book. However I also felt that some of this research information was just plugged directly into the book. Not only about the Hollywood memorabilia topic, but also about the topic of the gay/lesbian life.

I enjoyed the storyline, I enjoyed the banter of the characters, and I definitely look forward to following along in this series.

A great intro book into a potentially endless series of cozy mysteries. It has the benefit of appealing to the LGBTQ group, the classic movie group and eventually the current movie buffs. Memorabilia is a hot area right now but make sure to do a little digging to find some very lesser known info. I'm only a scraping the top of the barrel buff and I knew almost all of the movie trivia in this book. If you're trying to pull in the movie buff crowd you gotta pull us in with new info and more behind the scenes.

I do have to say, nice start with costumes. I have a degree in costume production and would have love more emphasis on specifics about who wore what and how it actually was made. I know how actresses feel about their costumes and that info is pretty common knowledge from interviews with actors about their costumes. What would be nice, especially for an actress really involved with her costumes would be details about why their costume was designed the way it was. Costumes aren't just picked because they're pretty and go with the theme. They're designed to subtly hint at a character's personality or real role to the story.

I'm still on my cozy mystery kick so when I saw this title and cute cover in the recently added audiobooks section of Find Titles on Netgalley, I couldn't resist requesting this one!

Its about a once married now divorced pair of washed up soap stars that decide to open up a celebrity memorabilia store. As in all cozy mysteries, these two some how find themselves involved in a murder case that they take upon themselves to help the detective on the case solve.

This is a fun and cheeky read!

I thought this was a really cute intro to a new cozy series! The characters were so interesting and had such developed back stories, and the mystery in question was not obvious at all! Jay and Cindy had great opposing characteristics that helped them to balance their skills while trying to solve the murder.