Thank you #NetGalley for the eARC of #ADeathonCorfu by Emily Sullivan!

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, this novel follows English widow Minnie Harper, who is trying to piece together a life of her own on the idyllic island of Corfu after the loss of her husband. Between raising her two children and quietly pushing back against the societal expectations of womanhood, she stumbles into something far darker: the murder of a local maid, brushed aside by those in power. What follows is an engrossing investigation wrapped in social commentary and driven by a woman discovering how much she's still capable of.

What truly sets this book apart is its vibrant sense of place. Sullivan’s portrayal of Corfu—its landscape, its people, and its subtle tensions between ex-pats and locals—is richly textured and utterly immersive. The dynamic between Minnie and grumpy neighbor/famous author, Stephen Dorian, is a slow-burn masterpiece. Their banter is fun, their chemistry undeniable, and their alliance to solve the murder adds an extra layer of tension and tenderness.

A Death on Corfu is a well-plotted cozy mystery with satisfying twists, emotional themes, and a heroine you can’t help but root for.

A Death on Corfu is historical mystery with some romantic elements.

Sullivan is a great writer. The setting, characters, investigation, conclusion, and potential foreshadowing (🤞🤞🤞) were superb.

The first 60% was a bit slow but definitely picked up to the end!

I knew when I first saw the premise for this book I was going to love it. A historical cozy mystery set on a Greek Island? Yes, sign me up! And this didn't disappoint. Sullivan weaves a tale so intricate that it took me until the end to figure out whodunnit. She kept sending my mind in a million different directions and when the ending happened I was like "oh my gosh, yes! it had to be them!" Sullivan also brings in this subtle romance element and you can't help but root for the single mother FMC. The romance also ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so I definitely need to know what happens next!

The story takes place in the late 1800's, in Corfu Greece.
As the title implies, the genre is cozy mystery, historical fiction, with just a tiny bit of a whiff of romance. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger so I'm guessing this is going to be #1 in a series. I will definitely be in line for the 2nd!
The characters are very defined, and I enjoyed learning of Corfu and the English who inhabited the city.
I think the murder is fairly easy to figure out, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the story and there were enough little surprising tidbits thrown in along the way that kept me well entertained and hoping that there is a sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Sullivan and Kensington Publication for this e-arc in exchange for my opinion.

A Death on Corfu by Emily Sullivan is a historical cozy mystery set in Greece in 1898.

Minnie Harper is a widow raising 2 teenage children, doing small typing jobs on the side to help with expenses, when she is offered a job as a typist to famous mystery author, Stephen Dorian, who is staying next door while he attempts to finish his latest novel. When a young maid turns up dead nearby, Stephen and Minnie pair up to solve the mystery.

The characters in this book were interesting, in particular Stephen seemed ahead of his time in his treatment of Minnie as an equal in their investigations given the time period.

Throughout the novel there was a hint of attraction between Stephen and Minnie, although they both seemed to be fighting it. Since I'm a lover of romance, I enjoyed this aspect of the story, and the romance was not so prominent that it took over the story, so if you aren't a romance lover I don't think it will put you off.

Although I'm not a historian by any means, it felt like the author was knowledgeable about the time period, and the customs of the time. The attitudes of the police and many of Minnie's neighbours towards the Greek people, especially the people working for them as servants, felt (sadly) realistic and really helped me to picture the time period.

While the main mystery is wrapped up by the end of this novel, there are a few things that are left a bit open-ended, and hint that there may be more to come. I certainly hope so as I would like to see more of Minnie and Stephen.

Emily Sullivan is a new to me author, and I enjoyed her writing style. I understand she has written some historical romance, which is my favourite genre, so I will probably check those out.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A nice start to a new series about Minnie, a widow, and Stephen, an author who team up to solve a murder mystery on Corfu. Know that this has many of the elements of a romance- opposites, banter, forced proximity with only one bed-but that's not what it is. There's a bit of tensioinbetween the two but mostly they're focused on finding out what really happened to Daphne. The mystery is good and I enjoyed the atmospherics of the British community as well as the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This ends with a sort of cliff hanger so here's hoping we see these two again.

Minnie Harper moved from England to Corfu with her husband and 2 children. After his sudden death and a promise to stay and raise the children in Corfu, and without an income, Minnie is in need of some cash to repair her roof.

She is approached to help a famous author, Stephen Dorian, who is writing his next book and asked if she would be interested being his typist.

When leaving his villa after finishing for the day she discovers a body. The body is of a young maid and the police are only interested in closing the case as soon as possible.

Minnie is convinced that there is more to this murder, so with Stephens help, they set about trying to find who in need is the killer!

A great read!!

I read this one based on the pretty cover and because it is set in Corfu. When I discovered that it takes place in 1898 and is about the English expats living there I was doubly interested.

Minnie Harper and her husband moved there some years ago, but sadly he died leaving her with little money, two children and a dilapidated house. Minnie is obliged to accept paid work as a typist for the famous author who is currently living next door. When her friend's maid is found murdered she works with the author (who writes mysteries of course) to investigate.

This was a very enjoyable book. The historical setting is good, the characters well developed and the mystery intriguing. I predicted the wrong person as the murderer but I was close! There were several open ended topics in the story which indicated the possibility of a follow up. I hope so!

I knew I would enjoy this book because I love Emily Sullivan, but I didn't expect to fall completely in love with this story, the characters, and the setting.

First of all, the imagery and description made me fall in love with the first half of this book. I don't think I've read ever a book where I felt like I was THERE in the moment, actually seeing it; but I did here, and it was beautiful.

Minnie is a widow, living with her two children on Corfu when a new neighbor arrives. Stephen is a famous author who writes mysteries, he's also in need of a typist. At first, Minnie and Stephen work together to complete his newest novel, but later they work together to solve a very real crime on the island.

While there wasn't any actual romance that occurred, there is very clearly something meaningful and deep between Minnie and Stephen. It is a SKILL to write a book without anything actually happening between the characters but to still feel the tension and emotional build happening between them. Stephen loves that women and I will stand by that until the day I die. The stolen glances, the little things he says to her, the way EVERYONE else sees it too... I cannot wait to read more about their story and THEM together.

Seriously a delightful book!!!!

what a great start for a new series. and we are intrigued not only for the plot but also the characters. i like this is a good baseline of setting us the scene and setting us the characters.
the pace is just right to be taken along with our two main characters as they try to find out the culprit of a murder that the police dont seem interested in.
when we meet Minnie she isnt in the best of headspaces. her husband died and right now all the memories are becoming twisted and questionable. she is facing some darker truths about her husband and their marriage. but being on Corfu feels like the right place to be. when he neighbor Stephen asks her to write up his work for him she sees it as perfect timing for her whilst she is there.
it is here that a pairing is formed when Stephen and Minnie work together to unfold the mystery.
there connection doesnt began on an instant and i like how we are going to slowly get to know this pair.
i also liked how some general interesting things were given about the island itself. it had that extra layer of realness to it.
this is a good start for a new series and it has me wanting more.

I may not love-love a slow burn romance, but I'm trash for a multi-book romantic arc in a historical mystery series - so I was thrilled to have a new couple to root for in A Death on Corfu! Emily Sullivan's hist-myst debut features a widowed single mom, Minnie Harper, who takes a short-term job as a secretary for mystery writer Stephen Dorian. The two do not make a very good first impression on each other, but they're soon doing things like ogling forearms and making snarky remarks about sainted deceased husbands. Also they just might get trapped on a different Greek island overnight by mistake...

So obviously, that's the romance stuff. The mystery is also nicely constructed. I personally don't read the genre to challenge myself into finding the culprit before the characters do, but in this case I did figure out whodunnit, although I was bamboozled as to motive until the very end.

I thought the first person POV worked really well. If Minnie were a different character, I might have been frustrated by her obliviousness to Stephen's interest; but Minnie is a widow who loved her husband very much, and who has spent the past 4 years trying not to look too closely at his actions or her feelings about them. I also really liked the historical elements. The British community on Corfu is not something I had previously read about, and I always love getting new tidbits to send me down research rabbit holes when I read!

My only issue with the fact that I read this book so early is that now I have even longer to wait for the next books in the series!!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Minnie, a widow with two children is honoring her late husband's wish and staying on the island of Corfu.
When Stephen Dorian, an author takes the house next door, he asks Minnie if she would type his manuscripts.
Minnie finds a dead body of a young lady who worked for one of her acquaintances. When the police don't really investigate, her and Stephen start asking questions.
This is definitely a who done it, with no romance. The relationship between Minnie and Stephen is tenuous at best, as they work together.
All in all, it was an interesting read with the murder solved, but no real ending to the story.
I look forward to the next book in the series.

Widowed and raising two children on Corfu, Minnie takes a job with grumpy author Stephen—only to stumble upon a murder. Her investigation leads to an unlikely alliance with her employer, as they uncover a dangerous conspiracy.

This novel has a Golden Age feel to it that captures the time period. The pace is sedate without being slow, while the characters and relationships are understated. We get a taste of Minnie’s struggle to find her place in the world after her husband’s death, and a hint of the romance developing between her and Stephen, without those things overwhelming the mystery plot. I look forward to more mysteries from this author.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Oh the tension. A period piece murder mystery, yes please! Raising two children on her own after the passing of her husband, Minnie aims to solve the murder of a local maid, unearthing some local secrets, even some of her own. Fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the e-arc.

My second Emily Sullivan book and I can confidently say I am a fan and will insta buy her books from here on out.

I loved this! I am more of romance reader then a mystery reader but I thoroughly enjoyed this. The investigation Minnie and Mr. Dorian went through was excellently written. I couldn’t put it down.

I really enjoyed the very obvious feelings Minnie and Mr. Dorian had throughout the book and I only wish their was more if it. If the book has ended with them ending up together, rather then them not even being on speaking terms, I’d of given this book a 5 star read.

I’m glad Minnie finally decides to return to England and is hopeful she will see Mr. Dorian again but it was too ambiguous of an ending and I really don’t like that.
I really wish their could be a book 2 where Minnie returns and she and Stephen get together.

Their was no epilogue and that could have been a chance to at least show the readers a glimpse of Minnie back in England and meeting up with Stephen with a hopeful, and confirmed, start of a relationship.

What can I say? I love a HEA!!

This lovely, sparkling book is set on Corfu in 1898. It’s the story of widowed Minnie, raising two kids on her own. Minnie is British but her husband chose Corfu for them, and the family was very happy there together. His dying request was for Minnie never to send the children back to England. While Minnie’s son, Tommy, is young and more than entranced by the copious insect and amphibian population, her daughter Cleo is a teen who has reached the eye rolling stage. I doubt that’s what it was called in 1898, but you know what I mean. Cleo is longing to go away to school.

While Minnie has been left with a house, it’s in some disrepair and money is tight. So, when a friend suggests her as a typist to a mystery writer who has rented a home not far from her own, she takes the job, despite finding the man somewhat prickly and annoying. He’s a well known mystery writer, Stephen Dorian, who would have been a contemporary of Conan Doyle. While Minnie feels she’s above popular fiction, as she types, she finds herself drawn to both the prose and reluctantly, to Stephen himself.

When Minnie and Stephen have an argument one morning, she heads to the beach and discovers the body of a young Greek maid she had encountered and spoken to a few times. She’s devastated, and when she feels the police aren’t giving the case their full attention, she begins to ask questions herself, finding that she’s often accompanied by Stephen who agrees with her assessment.

While the book is definitely a mystery much of it centers on the relationship between Minnie and Stephen, which is an interesting one. Minnie is widowed, devoted to her husband’s memory; Stephen is recently and painfully divorced. It’s the reason he’s fled to Corfu. Neither want to remarry, but they do find a friendship that both of them seem to have needed. Stephen even befriends Tommy.

The highlight of the book, to me, was when Minnie and Stephen take a detecting trip to a nearby island to ask questions of the dead girl’s aunt. They discover quite a lot and then find themselves stranded on this island overnight. It both strengthens and ultimately destroys their new friendship – or does it? That hopefully is the story of the next novel.

This is a first mystery for Emily Sullivan, who has written historical romance. That is a clear strength of the novel, but the mystery part is also well done, clever, and well set up. The clues are there for an astute reader to winkle out. I rarely try to figure out whodunnit myself and I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. Sullivan also leaves the reader with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am already looking forward to book two.

I hope this book is the start to a series the way it appears to be because I’m already invested in Minnie Harper and her family and Mr. Dorian. Give me all the historical cozy mysteries for her to solve with a little potential romance subplot. I’ll read every page.

Minnie is such an interesting character with a deep backstory. She is raising her two vivacious, curious kids on a small island on her own after losing her husband four years prior. In addition to the murder mystery plot Minnie becomes involved in solving, there are also questions that arise about what fueled her husband’s choice to move the family to Corfu. There’s so much to find out there and why I hope this is a series that will continue. Back to Minnie though. She is a strong woman with conviction and desire to do the absolute best for her family. She is kind and steadfast. When she recognizes that the police are not giving Daphne’s murder the care and attention it deserves, she takes the risk to find answers herself. Or, alongside Mr. Dorian as it ends up being.

Mr. Dorian is a mystery writer with a mysterious past of his own as he has just appeared on Corfu with more questions than answers about why he’s there to write his next novel. He’s a difficult man to get to know and seems abrasive on the surface, but little pieces of who he may be under his tough exterior get a chance to shine through as he and Minnie search for Daphne’s killer and spend more time together alone and with her family. All the mystery around Mr. Dorian, and the tension and potential for romance between the two of them that feels just barely touched on in this book is all more fuel for me wanting this to be a whole ongoing series.

Have I mentioned I hope this is a series? Thank you to Kensington via NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Ms. Sullivan's historical romance novels. She writes amazingly detailed, swoon-worthy romances that I devour. That being said, I've only ever read a handful of cozy mysteries, and this is a historical one to boot. I'm not 100% sure of all of the traditional hallmarks of a historical mystery, so I'm going to do my best to review this one.

Minnie Harper, a widow with two children, lives on the island of Corfu in Greece at the turn of the 19th/20th century. The author does an excellent job with beautiful descriptions of this paradise, btw. (I just added Corfu to my bucket list.) I, personally, love this time period in historical books. The Edwardian era was a fascinating era in history, and the author excels at weaving in bits of historical information throughout the novel. One day, a famous (and scandalous) mystery author moves to Corfu to finish writing his recent novel--and he needs a typist to help him make his deadline. He hires Minnie for the job and one day after working with him, she stumbles upon the dead body of a servant that she knows works for a friend of hers. When the author, Stephen, realizes what has happened, he and Minnie set off to find the murderer and clear another man's name and get real justice for the victim.

Since I'm a romance reader mostly, it was hard for me to have the mystery take the front seat in this story when Stephen and Minnie so obviously have feelings for each other. Big ones. I just wanted to scream "Please hook up NOW so I can celebrate!" I am really rooting for these two. As for the mystery itself, it was ok. Nothing crazy or super-twisty. Also, I'm assuming because of the way the story ended that this will be a series? Fingers crossed because **SMALL SPOILERS** I need to know what happens with Stephen and Minnie. This novel didn't end on a cliffhanger, per se, but I definitely felt that stuff was not wrapped up at the end. Once again, take all of this with a grain of salt because I have no idea if this is the way these type of novels end.

Anyway, I think the two things shine about this novel: Sullivan's use of historical details and her ability to craft two people who are meant to be together and make it believable. (If you haven't read her historical romances, you should. She's a master at the genre, truly.) It was an enjoyable read and I'm very much hoping to see Minnie and Stephen in a second book!

**A big thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for a copy of this book to read and review for my own opinions!**

This is such a delightful cosy mystery! Set on the island of Corfu in 1899-ish, it's atmospheric and evocative in the best ways. Widowed Minnie is living on Corfu with her two children, four years after the death of her husband. She's friendly with the expats and immersed in her local community. When author Stephen Dorian comes to stay next door Minnie agrees to type up his manuscript and they move from misunderstandings and resentment to grudging admiration. After the death of a maid from a nearby home, Minnie and Stephen investigate. As much as it's a mystery to solve, the goodness here was in the local life and people, and I loved reading all the detail about the way they lived. The food is delicious! I would also call this a pre-romance, the chemistry between Minnie and Stephen is searing, but essentially nothing happens - even during an overnight stay with 'only one bed' 😃. Author Emily has set things up very nicely with plenty of adventures to come - perhaps back in London, if Minnie is brave enough.

Corfu reminded me of Gerald Durrell's memoirs, especially 'My Family and Other Animals' – with a little boy obsessed with animals, spinach pies, herbal tisanes and travelling in the donkey cart. Such fun!

Thank you Emily Sullivan, Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

An immersive setting, budding romance, and unsolved mystery intersect in the best way in “A Death on Corfu.” Minnie Harper and her two kids are still living in Corfu after her husband passed away many years ago. Life has proceeded as normal until an alluring mystery author arrives in their small town. He offers her a job she can’t resist, despite their reluctance towards each other. Then a girl winds up dead, the townspeople are quick to assume the worst of the victim - so this inspecting duo must team up to get to the bottom of it. I absolutely loved this book and never wanted to put it down. The slow burn romance is so well done. The mystery was thrilling at times and unraveled at the right pace. I can’t wait to see how this series continues!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.