I’m not a big fan of cozy mysteries but I AM a big fan of Abby Waxman so I was along for the ride, no matter what she wrote next. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me but it may work better for cozy fans! I just can’t get with the flippant/“funny” treatment of death and when a death by suicide was described in a way that felt really callous to me I decided to dnf at 88% read. Thank you to Berkley for the free ebook to review.

This was the first book that I have read by Abbi Waxman but it will not be the last. I hope that she will write more funny, snarky, mystery/thrillers that have interesting characters (including a recovering alcoholic, jailed for murder previously protagonist), and a plot that will take readers for an interesting ride.

Follow Julia and Mason as they get to know each other, go all over the place meeting with a variety of California characters. Will they emerge unscathed?

Take a look at this title to find out.

Again, many thanks to Berkley for this opportunity and to NetGalley as well.

A cranky, former actress, wanted for murder, happens to be a stellar sleuth when she teams up with her new assistant to find the person responsible for the murdered the man in her pool in her Hollywood home.

Truly hope Waxman doesn’t abandon her romance roots, as i enjoy those books more than this one.

Thanks for the free book Berkley Pub.

One Death at a Time is Abbi Waxman’s latest mystery/thriller set in California. It features two ladies who connect at a sobriety group, similar to an AA meeting. This story is different in tone than her bestseller, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

One Death at a Time begins with Julia Mann, a bad-tempered, former B-list actress finding a dead body in her swimming pool. The next scene involves Julia at her sobriety meeting, displaying her prickly personality and lack of respect for authority. Natasha Mason is part of the same sobriety group and feels invested in helping Julia. Soon Julia and Mason team up Thelma and Louise-style, to solve the murder and stay sober.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is one of my all-time favorite books due to its realistic but quirky characters. Nina Hill was more of a character-driven story while One Death at a Time is a plot-driven story with Hollywood-type characters. That said, readers who have struggled with addiction will relate to Julia and Mason. The author creates many colorful side characters and writes very descriptive scenes, so that readers can picture the action like a movie. So while One Death at a Time was different from what I expected, I quickly got caught up in Julia and Mason’s hilarious antics and misadventures. I’m confident that One Death at a Time will become a bestseller and subsequently a movie studio will pick it up.

I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Making a successful move from romcoms to cozy mysteries, the author brings her wit and charm to what feels like the start of a series.

Natasha Mason meets Julia Mann at an AA meeting and becomes her sponsor. Mason is a 25 year old with impulse control issues and Julia is a famous actress who spent 15 years in prison for killing her husband (which she didn’t) and is now involved with the murder of an ex-lover/film executive. Since leaving prison, Julia has become a lawyer intent on defending others who have been wrongly accused and has gathered a team around her in her luxury Hollywood Hills house to support her efforts. Mason joins the team as Julia’s sidekick and we’re off to the races.

The mystery itself is fairly hohum, but there’s lots of colorful LA characters and scenes along the way. Mason and Julia (plus team) are terrific creations, even as they feel like characters that could easily fit into a romcom if it weren’t for, you know, the addiction problems and the murders. These addiction problems do feel a little bit bolted on at times and a little pushed to the background at other times, but give a backbone to their relationship.

This is definitely on the less saccharine end of the cozy mystery spectrum and I would happily spend more time with this team. A series is definitely presaged as Mason contemplates becoming a licensed private investigator and has an unfulfilled mutual crush with Archie the lawyer/agent and the real culprit in Julia’s husband's murder has yet to be unearthed.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman is a mystery filled with murders and corpses. Set in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, there are actors, actresses, directors, iconic movies, and an interesting cast of characters.

There are laugh-out-loud moments as Julia Mann, a retired actress/attorney, and the rag-tag team she surrounds herself with at her hillside home in the mountains set out to clear her name as she’s accused of another murder. This time, she intends to clear her name and not go back to prison for another murder she didn’t commit. We watch the interrogations as Mason, her AA sponsor and now personal assistant is sent all over doing Julia’s bidding to get answers.

There are multiple storylines and complex characters. There is a depth to the story, but also some hilarious moments. It was interesting to see how Julia’s mind works and how she and her “team” manage to put the clues together, solve the multiple crimes and reveal whodunnit. There are a few loose ends and I’d love to see a connected story to give me better closure. There are beautiful and vivid descriptions adding to the flavor of the story.

One Death at a Time is filled with clues, dead bodies, and multiple crimes to solve. I was sometimes on the edge of my seat and other times laughing or chuckling with a smile on my face.

I rated the book 4.5 stars but rounded to 5 stars here and on other sites.

The review is posted on NovelsAlive.

3.75/5 rounded up

Thank you Berkley Books for the advanced reading copy!

I love any book with Hollywood/celebs/famous people and their drama, and this was a super fun combination of those things with a solid cozy mystery attached. From the start, I was intrigued by this one. Any book that opens with a dramatic AA meeting is going to hook me. I did find the variety of characters to be confusing, moreso at the start, but sometimes throughout, too. This did make it possible to have tons of red herrings, though, which took the mystery to a new level.

Both Mason and Julia were flawed but loveable characters. I loved their playfully contentious dynamic just as much as I enjoyed them as individuals. I love a found-family moment, and this felt like just that. The ending solidified that to me and I really appreciated the way things wrapped up.

Overall, this was a really solid and enjoyable book. I'm not sure it will stick with me long-term in the sense of remembering a lot of details, but I will remember liking this overall. I am hoping to see more books and turn this into a series, based on the way things sounded at the end. I would read more of this world for sure!

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S ONE DEATH AT A TIME ABOUT?
Natasha Mason is a twenty-something still trying to figure out what to do with her life—her alcoholism led to her leaving law school, and now she's paying bills by delivering food and doing other gig economy standbys in L.A., and making sure she makes at least one meeting a day.

At one of these meetings, a vaguely familiar-looking woman shows up—and is not the friendliest of people. She seems—well, is—more concerned about getting her court-mandated signature than in anything else. Mason volunteers to be this woman's interim sponsor. Now this older woman had been sober before, but on the night that led to the court-mandated meetings had a blood-alcohol level that stunned a rowdy twelve-step meeting into silence. She'd also come out of a blackout next to the dead body of a former lover/decades-long antagonist and what was probably the murder weapon. For a night she couldn't remember—it'd clearly been eventful.

The next morning, Mason shows up at the gate of her obviously well-off sponsee. Thanks to some time on the internet, Mason knows her to be Julia Mann—a former box office star, now a lawyer taking on cases for as many Davids as she can in a city of Goliaths. Oh, and in between careers, she'd been in prison due to the death of her husband—the former business partner of the dead man she's currently suspected of killing.

This meeting didn't go the way Mason suspected—for one, Julia Mann's housekeeper is an amazing cook, as Mason learned. Also, the two kept butting heads—Mason wanted to talk about Julia's sobriety, but Julia was rather fixated on the murder. And yet...something clicked between the two. In between verbal jousts,* Julia ends up hiring Mason to be her personal assistant and help with the investigation. Mason justifies this to herself as a way to stay near Julia and keep her sober. The chance to eat more of Claudia's cooking and make more money than an app can pay doesn't hurt.**

Before you know it, these two have got themselves involved in a separate murder investigation (another David for Juila to work for), arson, tensions around Julia's former career in the film industry, tensions around Julia's future career in the film industry (she wants none of it, but no one seems to care), brushes with organized crime, multiple reasons for both or either of them to ditch their sobriety, and more things that I can fit into this rambling sentence.

* The back-and-forth between these two is reason enough to try this book. Waxman will supply several others, it should be noted.
** Yes, this makes two books in as many months about an LA-based delivery driver turning amateur investigator.

THE MURDER MYSTERY(IES)
Murder mysteries surrounding the film industry tend to have a few things in common—secrets, petty grievances that get nurtured into full-blown rivalries (or worse), scandals (for an industry reputed to be filled with amoral hedonists, there really are a lot of moral scandals), and organized crime.

One Death at a Time ticks all of these boxes—and a few others that I should've listed above, but forgot to. This may be Waxman's first mystery, but she clearly understands the genre and knows how to construct a classic whodunit in a contemporary setting.

You get all the twists, turns, red herrings, and layers upon layers of competing motives for multiple suspects that you need—doled out in just the right pacing with dollops of shocks and action along the way. The final reveal is satisfying, and every loose plotline is tied up. It's a textbook example of the genre—pleasing in every way.

THE HUMOR/TONE/RELATIONSHIPS
This might be a clumsy way to tackle these ideas, but it's where I am.

Yes, Waxman is known for Rom Coms—or Rom Com-adjacent—books, so we all know she's funny. This seemed to me to be more overtly comedic. There are jokes—many of them—not just funny situations and loveable, quirky characters doing goofy things. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those (as well as non-lovable, quirky characters).

This reads like Dave Barry's kind of crime novel, with the restraint of a Richard Osman. The verbal jousting is great, and the physical comedy is almost as good. The situations are frequently ridiculous, but never so much so that you get taken out of the moment.

The technical term that best describes Mason is "wiseass," and one with poor impulse control. Someone who doesn't know how to keep her trap shut, powered by Waxman's wit is a fun character to read. Julia's no slouch in that department either, but she's more mature, she knows that she should pick her targets with care—and is therefore usually more effective.

The rest of Julia's team (I will not tell you about them, so you can meet them properly) and some of the other characters the reader encounters have drier wits, largely fitting into the typical Waxman model. Oh, except this one actress...nope. You wouldn't believe me if I tried to describe her.

Mason's support system consists of the meetings she attends, her sponsor, and her cat. Julia has a strong team of employees and friends (the Venn diagram there has a large area of overlap)—they're just not that effective on the sobriety front, but they make up for that with their loyalty. Julia also has a pretty strong network of former friends, employers, and employees in and around the film industry. These are loyal to their grudges against her and their own self-interest—however, they (or at least most of them) want her to succeed in her search for the killer, so they can move on with their lives and careers.

You combine all of this—with a (slowly) growing relationship of affection, trust, and appreciation between our protagonists—and you've got yourself a great basis for comedy with heart.

SOBRIETY
One thing that Waxman never made light of in all of this was the sobriety of the characters. Yes, Julia would mock Mason's approach to being her sponsor, but that was about the characters' personality differences—both of them took it seriously.

Not all of the characters appreciated the struggle and what the characters did to preserve it—but none of the comedy was about the drinking.

The opening meeting did get me to chuckle frequently, but that was character-based humor. The book never gets preachy at the reader, just to each other.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT ONE DEATH AT A TIME?
I had a blast with this—if you couldn't tell. This is my fifth Waxman novel, so I went into it expecting that I would. I just wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it, because of the genre. But if I didn't know who she was before I picked this up, I'd be scouring the library for her Abbi Waxman now.

It does—as it should—feel very different than her previous works. I'd say this is closer to last year's Christa Comes Out of Her Shell than the rest, but even saying that, this is different. The stakes are (obviously) higher for these characters; there are potentially lethal consequences for failure. Which might explain the more heavy-handed approach to the comedy.

I think I've said everything I wanted to above—the mystery part is really well done; the characters are well-designed and well-excecuted, the relationships between them are strong and obvious—you like the people you're supposed to like enough that you wish you sat around the room with them, watching them go back and forth while eating whatever wonderful treat/meal Claudia has prepared. Also, it's funny. That's a one-two-three combination that I'll always enjoy and recommend.

This feels like a standalone, but it could easily spawn a sequel or more. If it does, I'll be first in line. If it doesn't...well, that's okay, too. It works really well either way.

Basically, reader, if any of the above tickles your fancy—you need to add this to your TBR. I practically guarantee you'll have a great time.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for this post, which contains my honest opinion—thanks to both for this.

Wow. There was way too much going on in this book.

Natasha Mason, who goes just by Mason, meets Julia Mann, a famous retired actress, at an AA meeting. Julia is court ordered to be there whereas Mason has been going for 3 years. When Mason becomes Julia’s interim sponsor, Julia sucks her into the case of finding out who murdered her old director turned nemesis Tony. Julia is currently the one suspected of the murder since it happened at her house.

I thought this was going to be a cute buddy comedy murder mystery but it just didn’t connect. I never really liked Mason or Julia. I wanted to so badly. Mason felt very flat to me, just repeating lines from AA books. I didn’t fully understand her sobriety journey or what it had to do with the story other than being a way for her to connect to Julia. And I was so annoyed when she would just randomly look at Julia and be like “you need to go to a meeting.” Why? What is Julia getting out of these meetings? Or even what is Mason getting out of these meetings?

Julia I did like a little bit more. She came of as brusque at first, but the more you learned about her the more it made sense. She collected a band of misfits around her which made her more likable, but the jump from Mason being her sponsor to being her right hand gal was a bit quick for me.

I also found that not only were there too many side characters for me to keep straight, but there were too many mysteries. Besides the main murder, there were at least 2 other murders in present day added to one that had happened in the past. Keeping everything straight was way too hard. At one point in the final quarter of the book, one of the characters even makes a Power Point to explain everything they know and how everything is connected. It felt like a way to remind the reader and help them get back into the story and mystery but I was even more confused. I ended up skimming the last 25% of the book because I just wanted to know who the murderer was.

The disappointing part what that the murderer was obvious. The motive was a bit convoluted and I felt like when Waxman was trying to tie everything back together she was making things up as she went. Honestly, I enjoyed the first half of the book. I thought maybe it was the type of series where they had to lay a lot of ground work and I would look forward to them solving more mysteries together in the future. Unfortunately, in the end I didn’t care about anyone.

This book is fine. If you like complex mysteries with a lot going on, you’ll enjoy it. Given that this is Waxman’s first mystery, I would be willing to give another book by her in the genre a chance. I don’t think I would read a second book with these characters though. They just weren’t my cup of tea.

I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill so was eager to read this book. I was not disappointed. The writing was witty. I loved the relationship between Mason and Julia. There are a lot of characters so you do need to pay attention. The mystery was good. I really want more Mason and Julia adventures. Need more Archie and Claudia too.

Julia Mann, and ex-actress, finds herself teaming up with a Gen Z sobriety sponsor, Mason, after a drunken night leads to Julia becoming a murder suspect, again! There investigation includes several of Hollywood's elite, and as the murders pile up, Julia and Mason must find out who the killer is before they become the next victims. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this novel. Waxman is a great writer, and I always love her characters. I did not care for the authors use of homosexuality to disparage Christians. You don't see authors doing that in books concerning other religions, so I always find it very offensive that authors can so easily ridicule a vast majority of their readers. The only reason for Becky's Grandma's character was so that the author could slam Christianity.

A fast moving, entertaining cozy mystery of a different strip than the others I've read lately. The characters are many and all of them have issues, whether with each other or someone else, so when a dead body floats to the top of the pool, someone's going to jail. It just so happens that one of the MC, Julia, has already been arrested for murder once so she's everyone's favorite candidate. As Julia and her AA sponsor, Mason, ping pong around the Hollywood scene, the action never stops and the options grow.
An enjoyable way to spend a rainy day, reading ONE DEATH AT A TIME should be on your TBR list.

Atmospheric, witty, and entertaining!

One Death at a Time is a charming, captivating tale that transports you to the Hollywood Hills and into the life of Julia Mann, a formerly successful actress turned lawyer who, after the body of one of her previous co-workers, now enemy winds up dead in her pool, finds herself, with the help of a handful of people, doing whatever she can to prove her innocence so she doesn’t wind up an inmate once again for a crime she didn’t commit.

The writing style is humorous and light. The characters are sharp, quirky, and impulsive. And the plot is a pacey whodunit full of friendship, danger, oddball situations, red herrings, amateur sleuthing, lies, secrets, deception, deduction, attraction, revelations, the cutthroat work of movie making, and new beginnings.

Overall, One Death at a Time is a mysterious, amusing, satisfying treat by Waxman that had just the right amount of suspicious personalities, zany antics, and an abundance of drama to keep me engaged from start to finish.

I’m a huge fan of Abbi Waxman’s romance novels so I was excited to hear that she was writing a cozy mystery, and I’m thrilled to say that One Death at a Time did not disappoint. Filled with quirky characters, a mystery that’s a real page turner, and plenty of humor, I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish!

Julia Mann is a cranky former actress who has already done time for murder once and she has no interest in doing it again, so when she finds a dead body in her pool and is wrongfully accused of murder, she sets out to clear her name. When she meets gen Z Natasha Mason at an AA meeting, Julia is not a fan, but at Mason’s insistence, Julia reluctantly agrees to let her serve as her sobriety sponsor and to let her help find the real killer.

Waxman has a real gift for creating characters that are both quirky and endearing, and both Julia and Mason fit that bill. They might be an unlikely duo but it was so much fun watching them bond and banter over their shared love of sarcasm and poor life choices as they worked together to solve the murder. I also think the two of them needed each other more than they realized, and everything about their bond was giving me found family vibes, which I loved.

If you like mysteries along the lines of Finlay Donovan and Vera Wong, you should definitely check this one out!

4 1/2 stars

Enjoyable read! I love a fun mystery read! Abbi Waxman is one of my favorite authors, so of course I had to read this one! I enjoyed her rom-com/women's fiction more than this one. This was a good read, but I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight. Definitely got confused at times and it dragged in some parts. Overall it was enjoyable, but not my favorite.

*Thank you partner @berkleypub and @prhaudio for the #gifted book and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.*

This is my second Abi Waxman book and it did not disappoint. Abi is able to deliver a mixture of complex characters and values combined with complicated moral dilemmas and ethical decision making. The last book I read dealt with complex relationships between a mother and daughter as the daughter toured colleges and prepared to leave the nest. The complex relationships in Abi’s newest book revolve around celebrities' claim(s) to fame. A modern take on a classic whodunit. If you enjoy mysteries and plots focused on living a hollywood lifestyle, this is the read for you!

Julia Mann, former actress, struggles with alcoholism and decided to go on another bender. Along with the typical hangover and remorse, Julia finds that she blacked out and wakes up to a dead body in her backyard. Naturally she becomes suspect numero uno and has no proof…preponderance of evidence isn’t even on her side. Determined to prove her innocence and find the murderer, she teams up with her new Gen Z sobriety sponsor. They make sleuthing look fun and easy even when it becomes deadly. You’ll love the relatable characters, their vulnerability, and the humor that they each provide the story line.

Thank you @AbbiWaxman and @BerkleyPub for the free book! #BerkleyPartner #BerkleyBookstagram #Berkley

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 396 / Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: April 15, 2025
🥳#HappyPubWeek!🎉

Julia Mann is a recovering alcoholic and former actress who went to jail for 15 years for murdering her husband, which she didn’t do. She’s been keeping a low profile in the Hollywood Hills as an attorney representing those who need help until she goes on a bender and wakes up to find her ex and sworn enemy dead in her pool and once again, she’s being accused of a murder she didn’t commit. She and her new AA sponsor along with her motley crew of personal assistants, take it upon themselves to find the real murderer and clear her name.

Cranky old ladies with a lifetime of experience who speak their mind is my new favorite kind of character. I hope this turns into a series with many more murders for Julia and her crew to solve.

Very entertaining! While it's mainly a mystery, it was also hilarious. The characters were well formed and likeable. I appreciated the focus on recovery and coping mechanisms. If this turns into a series, I'll definitely read more.

Dear Fellow Reader,

I live in Wisconsin. We are currently playing peek-a-boo with spring. It is a long, tiresome game. We have had 70-degree days, and then this morning it was 34, and it snowed. Not that any of the snow stuck to the ground, but it is not exciting in April to look out the window and see the snow coming down so much that you can’t see across the street. The only thing to do is to know that the snow on the ground can’t last and that it will warm up.

And so I sit and look out my window and see the grey skies and think, I’ll write a book review for a book I really liked. Yes, I’m starting off with positivity. This book has good characters. They are not perfect by a long shot, but they are interesting.


As One Death at a Time opens, we meet Julia Mann, sitting on the side of a pool with her legs in the water. She is drunk, and one of her shoes is at the bottom of the pool. And there is a dead man in the pool. He was not dressed to go swimming. Nor was she sure who he was. And then there was the rifle, which she knew was out of place. She picked it up and threw it. Then she started to run.

We then meet Natasha Mason. Mason, as she is called, is attending her AA meeting. She has irritated one of the other members of the group, and he has started a small fire. Natasha is 25 and has striking features. You are given the impression that she and Jim spar frequently. When the fire debris is just about cleaned up, a woman walks into the meeting. The woman is about 60 and is beautifully dressed. Mason could tell that the other people in the room recognized the woman, and while she looked familiar to Mason, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. The woman indicated that she had relapsed and that she had a court card that needed to be signed by the group leader. Her name is Julia, and Julia does not want to talk. But after another attendee shares his story, Julia slowly tells of her arrest. Mason is fascinated by the story and the woman and volunteers to be her sponsor.

The next morning. Mason goes to Julia’s. Julia’s story is much more involved than Mason knew. Julia had been friends with Tony Eckenridge before she met her husband. Julia loved her husband. Tony, Julia, and Julia’s husband had all worked on the film Codex years ago. Codex was a bit of a cult classic, and there are rumors that it is going to be remade. Julia’s husband was murdered after the film was made, and while she didn’t kill him, she was convicted of the crime. Tony could have helped her, but he didn’t, and she hated him for that. While she was in jail, she sobered up and got her law degree so that she could help others. Tony, Julia, and Julia’s husband had all worked on the film Codex years ago. Codex was a bit of a cult classic, and there are rumors that it is going to be remade.

The story starts from there. Mason is hired to be Julia’s assistant, and she meets the others in Julia’s circle. Together, they work to find out what really happened to Tony. The first question being, why was Tony even at her house that night when they were enemies? And who did kill Julia’s first husband?

The characters are quirky and fun, and there are a lot of them. I thought the book’s tangled story lines were straightened out in almost believable ways. There is a lot that goes on in this story and I enjoyed it. I recommend that you read this book.

Thanks for reading.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Cozy Thriller, Hollywood Fiction
Spice Level: Nothing on page, but affairs and such are mentioned
Language: Profanity peppered throughout
Representation: Gay and Bi side characters

ONE DEATH AT A TIME is a Hollywood-esque mystery full of drama and glitter.

Is this one cozy? I would call it cozy adjacent because of the cursing that will offend some readers. This is also like a buddy book, where two women have a genuine friendship that grows out of their common pain—in this case the commonalities involve bad choices and alcoholism. I see more buddy books between men, so it's nice to have one centered around women.

I enjoyed the prickly Julia who hires Mason to help investigate the murder that happened at her pool. Mason is also blunt and sarcastic and fun to read. (I had to keep reminding myself that Mason [her last name] was a woman because the name sounded masculine to me.) The other side characters are quirky and might make you raise your eyebrows. Everything can sagely be nodded over if you say, "Ah, Hollywood." We can expect anything from the film industry.

Things to watch for:

- Revenge
- Redemption
- Favoritism
- Feminism
- Guilt vs Blame
- Even a touch of romance

I think most mystery readers will enjoy this book since it skirts the line of cozy and a traditional mystery.

Happy reading!