Thank you NetGalley for an advsnced audio copy of the book in return for an honest review.
This is a story about a murder which occurs during the filming of a major movie in Hollywood. The main character works in the costume department on the movie and discovers the body. She is immediately one of the suspects due to her dubious connection to the victim, however she is a naturally curious and nosy character and decides to do a little digging of her own to try to solve the mystery.
While the character is not herself annoying which is an easy trap to fall into in these type of books I did find the story a little predictable and goes very very technical on what goes into making a movie which although can be interesting at times also made the story slow down somewhat. The author has either worked in this industry or has done her research! I can't help but draw similarities to another book I read recently except change the location to southern USA, the industry to food and the characters job to food journalist. Although this one was better executed and less annoying. All in all a solid story and the narrator wasn't off-putting which is so often the case. There was also good use of acting skills.

There doesn't seem to be a plot?

This book needs drastic editing or a new goal with identity. A mystery it is not.

Mostly, it is overly detailed; drags on page after page describing costume or the costume process--where the MC ordered fabric from and why she likes/loathes that place or process and how great this famous actor is. NO ONE CARES. It is exhausting and doesn't have any point or function except to bore the reader.

I kept thinking "There doesn't seem to be a mystery" Sure, someone died on the set, but there still isn't any sort of "investigation" and our MC is mostly complaining about the "higher ups" and doing her job (costume design). She's not trying to figure anything out which is her entire "job" as a MC in a "mystery"

I also found some of the characters (e.g. reporter) written so cartoonishly I had to wonder if this author had every been on a movie set or to L.A. or around other people.

Note: I have lived in LA for more than a decade and 99% of my friends work in "the industry" so I was very primed to read this or any "Hollywood" book

This was an interesting enough book if you care about costume design- I feel like if you aren’t a fan of hearing about the movie making world and the costumes specifically then this books mystery plot will not be enough to hold your attention as it is not really a central aspect of the book itself.

I didn’t love this one. I usually really enjoy books where the main characters have an interesting job that I don’t know much about, and you get to enjoy the story and learn at the same time. So this mystery where our main character is a costume designer should have been right up my alley, but it really missed the mark for me. Half the book is like I’m shadowing a costume designer as they go about their day, and the day is very dull. It got bogged down in all the minors details of the job, and the plot took a backseat.

I also didn’t really like the main character. She felt like a goody two-shoes who was only focused on work in the face of being a murder suspect. I appreciate a hard-worker, but she felt a little too naive and self-righteous for my taste. The dialogue felt too formal, and our main character was 34 years old but acted much older (imo).

I also didn’t love the narrator. The way she read dialogue felt very flat, and her male voices were just not good.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

Final Cut by Marjorie McCown is a part of the A Hollywood Mystery series and follows Joey Jessop a costumer who works on major motion pictures. In this book, she is working on an unnamed super hero film, and her ex-boyfriend, Eli, is First Assistant Director of the film as well! Oh, and his new girlfriend is the Second Assistant Director. I really enjoyed some of the insider knowledge about film making and costume designs that seem specific enough to be accurate! I wasn't crazy about some of the name dropping and constant references to celebrities. I didn't predict the ending or really think it was going that way so an extra star for that!

I learned more about the costume industry than murder mystery. Still entertaining though! Definitely a good intro to mystery story or someone who doesn't want something super scary

When I read the first paragraph of this book, I was hooked! As I was entranced by the story, I decided I had to have the audio version of this book as well as the hardback copy that I had received as a gift from this brilliant author. I read some of the book aloud to my wife, and we listened to the second half.

Marjorie McCown is a BRILLIANT writer, and she writes about what she knows intimately, having been a key member of the costume design teams for many well-known movies throughout her career. No wonder she can describe the environment that her protagonist Joey Jessop works in with such detail. I felt like I was right there in Joey’s world, interacting with the characters that mingled on the sets, and “seeing” the scenes that she describes beautifully. Wow…Marjorie can create some mean villains! I have lived in LA and the area for many years, and it was wonderful to be able to travel through the streets and locales that are mentioned. This made everything even more believable.
The plot is very intriguing, twisted and sinister, and most relevant in today’s society. I could not figure out whodunnit, and was very satisfied at the end. The last few chapters are absolutely mesmerizing, and I was sad that the book had to end.

I am rating this book as one of the top 3 books that I have read in recent months, and I read an average of 2 cozy mysteries a week.

I can’t even think of enough superlatives to describe this book, which I hope will be the first of many. BRAVA! to Marjorie, and THANK YOU for allowing me to read this book and leave a personal review.

A cozy mystery with a Hollywood twist, a costume designer finds the dead body of the assistant director of the movie she's working on and things get crazy. She's a suspect being the ex-girlfriend of the dead assistant director's boyfriend. But there are a whole lot of other suspects on the movie set. Joey (the costumer) is on a mission to figure who really did it and clear her name.

This was a fun mystery with lots of Hollywood action! I'm hoping for a sequel!

A thriller set in the film industry sounded like a perfect summer read for me. Quickly, though, I found myself annoyed. I’m not a huge fan of this narrator (I feel like her mic is always too hot and it makes me crazy to listen to), but the story was a much bigger issue.

Within the first few minutes of the book there’s a ton of praise of Clint Eastwood as a great filmmaker which is just…a weird choice, given that he hasn’t made a good movie in more than a decade. Then all this bending over backward for a creep of a director on a Marvel-esque film set just…doesn’t make any sense. First, directors on these kinds of movies just don’t really matter anymore. Second, if someone were really this offensive, they wouldn’t be working at that level (not because Hollywood is healed post-#MeToo, but because they’re at least more cautious).

So these things really got under my skin, but I also just didn’t care about the characters. A big bummer.

I liked the premise of the book, but it didn’t turned out to be the way I expected.

This was supposed to be a cozy mystery but honestly I would not call this a mystery at all. The story was more of a too detailed description of movie costume work in general and in Hollywood, which don’t take me wrong was interesting but it wasn’t the story I expected. The mystery element was too predictable.

I enjoyed the first half of the story but after that I felt like it was the same thing over and over without anything new or interesting happening.
Also the ending was rushed, it didn’t felt like it was a satisfying end to the story.

This was underwhelming.

I didn't think the plot was especially interesting, the whole murder mystery aspect was pretty boring to be honest. Maybe that's because this is a cozy mystery? I wouldn't know, I haven't read enough of those to judge.
There was a lot of info about costuming and movies, and I think the author went too much into detail there.

Overall this book might appeal to people who like their thrillers / mysteries more on the lighter side, but I wouldn't recommend this to people who prefer more "serious" thrillers.

Final Cut by Marjorie McCown

I read the first chapter of this book as part of the First in Series Spring Sampler from Crooked Lane Books and liked it enough to try the audiobook. Unfortunately, as I read further into the book, it fell flat for me. There was more emphasis on the film industry than I was interested in, and the random references to real people in this fictional world seemed strange. I didn't have any interest in the characters and found my mind wandering as I listened. I eventually gave up before finishing. This book will work for the right person, just not me.

The narrator did a fine job.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #DreamScapeMedia for a free copy of #FinalCut by Marjorie McCown. All opinions are my own.

This was such a good mystery novel! It felt laid back but the stakes were still very high for our main character Joey. I will say, there is a major TW for workplace SA and references to workplace misconduct in Hollywood. If you find those things troubling to you, I would not recommend this book as they are one of the main themes of the story.

Throughout the story I found myself getting frustrated for and alongside Joey - it always seems like the odds are against her right from the beginning. Between finding her ex’s new girlfriend’s dead body, getting harassed by paparazzi, and being a suspect in the aforementioned murder, it’s understandable why she was in distress throughout the book. As I mentioned above, sexual harassment & assault play a large part in this story. There were parts where I started to become uncomfortable with the storytelling but I will say it accurately reflected how these situations happen in real life.

Overall, I really enjoyed Final Cut, Marjorie McCown is an incredible storyteller and did a great job is setting the scene and making me feel immersed in the story. Also - that twist and reveal at the end, I audibly gasped. 3.5* - rounding to four!

This was a cute book and I really enjoyed reading it. It's always fun to learn something about an industry you know nothing about while listening to a fun murder mystery! This was my 1st book by Marjorie McCown but it will for sure not be my last! I am now off to add all her backlog of books to my TBR!

#FinalCut
#NetGalley

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get through this one. I DNF at 33%. At first I thought it was so neat learning about the behind the scenes of film making but it seemed like that’s all it was. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but it just wasn’t for me.

The writing in this book did not sit right with me at all. Especially the dialogues were so unrealistic. The narrator unfortunately was terrible.

Final Cut tells the story of a film industry costume maker. When we first meet her, she’s happy that she finally got a job close to her house and can sleep in her own bed. The only complication is that her ex-boyfriend is the first assistant director. Eventually, she also finds out that the director of the movie is an A**hole.

Everything she changes when she finds the body of her Ex current girlfriend on set!

This is a nice mystery book! I really liked to learn more about the ins and outs of costume design in Hollywood and how the industry changed in past years. I do have a couple of problems with this book the final twist (or the murderer) is too obvious. There’s two stories that seem not to relate to the main murder the first one is the chauvinist director and the second one is her stalker - which up until the end of the book nothing happens with him.

I appreciated that this story was different than most of the normal murder mysteries out there at the moment. The setting provided a change of scenery, literally, that I greatly appreciated. I felt that the "main suspect" was too obvious, which was slightly predictable. However, the characters were all well developed and I appreciated the pace that the story progressed throughout. The narrator was pleasant to listen to. Overall, this is a book I would recommend.

Final Cut is who-dun-it told from the point of view of a Hollywood costume designer could Joey. I liked that although this was based in Hollywood Joey was a relatively 'normal' person and it was interesting to learn about the nuances of her job as it's something that is very behind the scenes usually. However after a while I found there was a bit too much filler of Joey just doing her job or normal day-to-day tasks which didn't go towards the plot and I felt weren't really needed in the story in order for it to move forward; because of this, although I really liked the premise, I started to lose interest and I think this would be amazing if it was just a little shorter to give it that suspenseful mystery feeling.

A murder mystery on a film set that incorporates all of the things we’ve heard about the “Hollywood machine” for years. Joey loves her job as a costumer. Her current project is a big budget superhero movie with her ex Eli, his new love Courtney and a director who a la Harvey Weinstein. She likes the team of costumers and that the set is close to her home. Things are sort of okay until Joey discovers a dead body and it happens to be Courtney. She is at the top of the suspect list and she knows she didn’t do so who was it and is that who is targeting her now? Theres a great deal of lead up to very short and quick, somewhat obvious ending. An easy listen with good narration.