This was an entertaining mystery, and the entire premise of a club full of people who have the same common name, was clever. I loved the multi-generational aspect of it, and the way the cases and characters intersected. This is a good mystery with a great heart.

When thirty-year old Sarah Jones, new to Minneapolis, gets invited to join a group of women with the same name, she sees it as an opportunity to meet people. This "Sarah Jones Project" seems fun, until another Sarah Jones (not in the group) turns up dead. The Sarah Jones's decide to try and solve the murder, and stumble into more than they bargained for. This novel was so much fun! I loved the wit, humor, suspense, and budding romance between Sarah and the FBI agent. Also, this is my favorite cover of the year, so far!

Having gotten in trouble in school, 17 year-old Sarah Jones was assigned an extra project by one of the Catholic nuns at her school. Therefore, the Sarah Jones project was born. The purpose was to create a “whimsical internet extravaganza that was designed to bring in intergenerational group of women together to explore authentic friendship”. Discovering that both Sarah Jones extremely common names in the country, the group was unlikely to become anything substantial.

Initially, there were seven of them. Again, all named Sarah Jones. To minimize confusion, they referred to one another by their ages Aside from Sarah 17, Sarah 27, Sarah 30, and the others, there was Fed Sarah, who has become Dead Sarah, apparently, the victim of a murder.

Initially, the Sarah Jones project was going rather well for the diverse group of same namers, but with the murder of Fed Sarah, things definitely had taken a turn. Most of the Sarah Joneses, and a nun named Sister Mary Theresa, immediately become amateur sleuths to find out who was behind the murder of Fed Sarah. Enter George Nightingale, newly appointed FBI Agent, who definitely doesn’t want the actual motivation for his involvement in the goings on.

Lots of Sarahs. Social media exchanges. An interesting plot and a blooming romance. These were some of the factors that made for a book that was an addicting mystery.

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I love this idea of a group of people with the same name creating a group where they can meet and make friends. Yet reading through the book sometimes it was hard to indicate which Sarah Jones was being highlighted story wise. Some of the Sarah’s were well developed while others just seemed to blend. There must be a better way to indicate which Sarah is which, or to develop their character voice enough that the reader could never confuse them even if they wanted to. Due to this confusion, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. Overall, it is an okay mystery not my favorite, but it did have some good twists.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title

4.5 stars rounded up. Super cute, very fun and clever. Great characters with good pacing and interesting plot. Honestly a really great book!

Thanks to the catchy premise/group name, this book starts out quickly paced, and it drew me right in. This remained throughout the whole book, adding in character depth, fascinating plot (and sub-plot!) and a sweet romance. I really did enjoy it from beginning to end!

Advanced reader copy provided by Berkley but all opinions are my own.

Synopsis: A group of unlikely friends - all named Sarah Jones - come together to solve a murder of one of their own.

Thoughts: This is a super cute concept - a group of friends of various ages and backgrounds who form a group because they all have the same name. It works well in theory, but for me I found it a bit confusing to follow and keep track of which Sarah Jones was which - especially when reading their group chat 😅. Aside from that, I had a good time reading this one. The mystery is well-crafted, the friendships are endearing, and there is plenty of humor sprinkled in.

Read this if you like:
🚔 cozy mysteries
🚔 murder cases
🚔 female friendship
🚔 mixed media

3.75/5 rounded up

Thank you Berkley Books for the advanced reading copy!

This was a fun read and I enjoyed this overall! What a clever premise -- gathering all the "Sarah Jones" in Minneapolis for a social club and making the best out of a super common name. While this one dragged a little bit in places, it was entertaining and surprising! I really like the way this story was told -- with multiple perspectives, time jumps and some interview features. It's always fun to have a multitude of timelines going in my opinion, and this added a lot to the intrigue of the story overall.

The characters were a lot of fun, and a joy to get to know. 30's dynamic with George was really sweet, despite being complicated. Their romance added some fun, intrigue and drama to the main mystery at hand. All of the characters had a lot of depth, which created more emotional ties to them than I would have expected. This was great on audio, though I do think it could have been enhanced with multiple narrators!

While this one wasn't perfect or super fast-paced, it was definitely entertaining and had a very satisfying ending! I enjoyed this overall and hope to see more from the Sarahs in the future!

To make amends for a school issue, a teenager in Minneapolis forms a group. She organised a group of people of all ages, everyone of whom was named Sarah Jones. FBI officers, nuns, and numerous Sarah Jones are engaged in the ensuing mysteries. The plot is intricate, the characters are fantastic, and this novel is a lot of fun.

This was such a funny and cozy mystery!

The premise of a group of women getting together because they have the same common name seemed so silly (in a good way), and it made for a great plot starter. Even though all of these characters had the same name, it was always easy to tell them apart, and I loved their distinct personalities, and the bonds that they formed. The multi POV was great in this kind of story, and I liked getting to see what was going on in certain people’s heads at different times.

While this book is labeled as a mystery, the “whodunnit” is made obvious, and the book is more about the unfolding of events and how to catch this person. For me, this made the book no less interesting, and I kind of liked knowing who it was, as it made the reading experience feel more tense. There’s a little bit of romance here as well, and I think it was the perfect amount without overshadowing the main story.

If you’re looking for a lighter mystery with a great cast of characters and laugh out loud moments, look no further.

Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West is such a fun, twisty read. It blends sharp social commentary with dark humor and just the right amount of suspense. The suburban setting feels so familiar, but West adds this deliciously sinister edge that keeps things interesting. The characters are complex, the tension builds at a perfect pace, and the mystery had me guessing until the end. If you love domestic thrillers with a side of satire, this one’s definitely worth a spot on your reading list.

I have been loving cozy mysteries lately, so naturally this one caught my eye! What I found was that West delivered not only a solid mystery, but two, and a depth to the story that includes exploring grief, friendship, and found families.

The premise kicks off with an unlikely group of Sarah Jones’ coming together thanks to a seventeen-year-old Sarah putting together a meet-up group called “The Sarah Jones Project”. These Sarah’s are all unique and we get to know quite a few of them on a deeper level, along with our leading FBI agent, Nightingale. This cast of characters was a blast to get to know and watch interact throughout the story.

In addition to alternating POVs, West also gives readers transcripts from interviews related to the two cases and text message exchanges between the Sarahs, which are a refreshing way to break up the story and keep the pacing moving forward while showing how the characters are woven together.

I think this would make a great beach read or a cozy fireplace mystery for the chillier months.

After breaking up with her fiancé, Personal Trainer, Sarah Jones aka 30, relocates from Vermont to her late mother’s hometown of Minneapolis and starts a new life. In Minneapolis, Sarah joins a group of other women all named Sarah Jones, that was formed by a 17-year-old girl (also Sarah Jones) that she tutors in biology. The group named “The Sarah Jones Project” was created when Sarah aka 17, got into some trouble in school and was advised to start a positive social experiment – she decides to create a multigenerational, whimsical club of people all sharing the very common name of Sarah Jones. The group has 6 members, 17 and 30, as well as a grad student/nanny 27 (who also works for a Sarah Jones), two teachers, 39 & 44, a retired lawyer who now runs a Murder She Wrote Blog, 69. They gain a bit of fame when they start an Instagram account and they post images of them “yarn-bombing” one of St. Paul’s most Iconic trees. Life seems to be going well; her “fame” has gained her some new clients, and she has met a new guy – George Nightingale, who is an FBI agent. When 27’s boss dies under questionable circumstances, the Sarahs decide to solve the murder, and 30 is recruited by George to help with the case – but she plans to use him for information to help the Sarahs. As her relationship with George deepens, surprising connections are discovered, but some stunning betrayals soon having her question everything.

George Nightingale never expected to be an FBI special agent, he always thought he would take over his family business – Birdson Camp. But a traumatic incident that occurred when he was a child, changed him forever. His friend Henry went missing and was never found. George was one of the last people to see him and never got over his disappearance, leading him to join the FBI in hopes of solving Henry’s case. But rather than being assigned to the case, he is assigned to the fraud unit and is given the case of Gabriella Johnson, who is believed to be responsible for assuming the same name as her victims and then stealing their trust funds, she is now in Minneapolis and George believes she is one of the “Sarahs” and upon the advice of his superior, he encouraged to cultivate an informant within the group. He chooses 30, she works at his gym, and he cannot deny that he is attracted to her. He tells her as much as he can, and when his fraud suspect becomes a suspect in a murder, he will need 30’s help more than ever. But he is soon torn between his feelings for her and his duty, and his past omissions may cost him everything he has worked for.

I really enjoyed this story, the mysteries were good, and the characters were likable. I loved all the twists and turns and definitely got a “it’s a small world” vibe. While I enjoyed this book, I will be honest, there were a lot of characters and a lot of POVs, and sometimes it was a bit much. I also felt like 30 was a bit hypocritical with George, she planned on using him for information without disclosing anything to him but is angry when she learns he didn’t tell her everything he knew – causing her to become somewhat petty and immature. Overall, it was a good book, and I would happily recommend the title to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and a bit of romance.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

This cozy mystery was a lot of fun, and I was able to read it in one long sitting. The gimmicky same name concept works for me, because the book becomes so much more than that. And I love the different POVs in each chapter, especially from the “villain.” Thanks to Berkley for the ARC.

Connecting with a group of people who share the same name as you is cute and fun until one of them is found dead and the other is a primary suspect...

This story follows a group of women who all share the same common name - Sarah Jones. It was a bit confusing at first but all you need to know is that most of them go by their age. The key characters are also as follows:

• Thirty - the main character and a fitness trainer/runner who recently moved to Minneapolis
• Twenty-Seven - a nanny whose employer is also called Sarah Jones (aka Fed Sarah). She's also Thirty's best friend.
• Seventeen - the founder of The Sarah Jones Project (TSJP) that connected all the SJs together.
• Sixty-Nine - the oldest Sarah in the group, and possibly the nosiest?
• Dead/Fed Sarah - Twenty-Seven's employer and chairman of the Federal Reserve who was found dead. Foul play is suspected.
• George Nightingale - a newly minted FBI agent working on the fraud squad who befriends Thirty but has his own side agenda as to why he joined the agency and why he chose to approach Thirty.
• Sister Mary Theresa - a Catholic nun who directed the Upper School at Seventeen's Sacred Heart Academy who mandated that Seventeen use social media for positive means as part of a rehabilitative disciplinary proceeding. This sparked the creation of TSJP. She's also a pretty cool nun and very memorable side character.

There are a few other Sarah Jones but they're not as important to the story so you can ignore them. Focusing on the Sarahs noted above makes it easier to follow the story.

The story is primarily told in third person alternating between Thirty and George's POVs, with occasional video transcripts from Seventeen, text threads amongst the TSJP, interview transcripts from ongoing investigations, and Twenty-Seven's occasional POV.

To add to the confusion of all the different Sarahs, there's a fraud case, a murder mystery, and a 20-year unsolved missing persons case that is also weaved into the story. There's a lot going on and it all comes together and is resolved nicely in the end but it can be confusing and hard to keep track of all the moving parts at times... I suppose that's what made this story fun to read!

Overall, the premise was unique and although the mystery was unsurprising, it was cozy, charming, and enjoyable.

Sarah Jones is new to town, but pleased to find likeminded friends rather quickly. In fact, it’s more than meeting new women to relate to. These women all have something not so special in common that, in turn, brings them together in a special way-they are all named Sarah Jones.

The Sarah Joneses begin to meet up as “The Sarah Jones Project”, finding their unique way of connecting oddly comforting. In an effort to differentiate amongst the Sarahs in their own group, they begin to refer to each other with different qualifiers like their ages. They also know that with a name so common, they’ve merely scratched the so-called Sarah surface.

Then the unthinkable happens and a Sarah Jones is found dead. Only this Sarah Jones is not one of THE Sarahs. But still, the women who came together in name alone can’t help but be drawn to the case. So the living Sarahs, along with a cast of side characters, set out to solve the murder of the outlying Sarah, for all Sarah Joneses sake.

Making Friends Can Be Murder has a super unique premise in creating a world of women who come together for a fun reason. However, as a reader this premise quickly proves to be a challenge, trying to keep all the Sarahs straight. It’s a pitch that sounds good in theory, but is harder to make stick in execution.

But if keeping all the Sarahs in line isn’t hard enough, West folds in even more confusion, adding extra characters with their own motivations and missions. As a result, this book turns into the long winded embodiment of a tongue twister, throwing the reader for a literal, literary loop. My head spinning, I applaud West’s concept, but have to say it made Making Friends Can Be Murder a true killjoy.

Seventeen-year-old Sarah Jones conceives of The Sarah Jones Project as a way of redeeming herself at her Catholic High School after some episodes of cyberbullying. She recruits five other Sarah Jones of various ages from 69 to her own 17. They get together, get to know each other, and plan an event which gives them newspaper recognition.

Among the Sarah Jones are a pair of elementary school teachers who teach next door to each other, a new transplant to Minneapolis, and a nanny who is working for still another Sarah Jones who isn't part of the group.

The transplant, 30 to distinguish her from the others, and 27 who is the nanny become best friends. But all is not well. 27 is a con woman who is in town to con money from her boss and 30 to pay to drug dealers who are threatening her young brother.

But things go fatally wrong when Fed Sarah, 27's boss, falls from a Minneapolis bridge and dies. It's murder. And 27 is somehow involved.

Then there is new FBI Special Agent George Nightingale who has requested assignment in Minneapolis and is put on the fraud squad. His assignment is to get close to 30 in order to find evidence to convict 27 of fraud. He doesn't expect to fall for 30. Nor does he expect to find himself in a murder investigation.

George has a reason to leave his family business - a summer camp in Northern Minnesota - and join the FBI. When he was in fifth grade, his best friend Henry disappeared with George being the last to see him alive. The case remains unsolved, and George is determined to finally solve it. Coincidentally, 30's mother who died when 30 was eleven was a counselor at the camp for three summers.

This was an engaging story filled with interesting characters. I liked the way the story was told. There were multiple viewpoints with 17's being the one that provides the framework detailing how a social project goes from a yarn-bombing to solving a murder.

This was fun, if not slightly confusing for a little bit!

This book follows many characters who all have the same name, so it is a little bit confusing until you get in the groove of it. I can definitely see some people getting used to that faster and some people taking practically the whole book to get used to that, but it did create some funny moments (clearly, on purpose).

This a book with a random and unlikely cast of characters who end up having to work together to solve a murder (hopefully before someone else - one of them, possibly - becomes a victim). I always love a reluctant ensemble cast, I like how the characters get to play off of each other and how many jokes tend to come out of it. (We even get a nun with a shady past!)

You get multiple POVs in this book and with multiple timelines. The timelines aren't super clear to where they belong, at least to me, so I was a bit confused by them. That's probably my biggest gripe with this book. It made the story feel like it was jumping around too much, making it quite choppy.

It has a similar tone to Only Murders in the Building, in my opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

Kathleen West makes her debut in the cozy mystery genre with a charming playful novel about a group of women named Sarah Jones...yes, they're all named Sarah Jones but they go by their ages instead of name in the book to keep them straight...who befriend a con artist... and another Sarah Jones in town is found dead under a bridge... Lots of twists and revelations come to play and also a bit of romance storyline thrown in there.... This was a fun one! Thanks Berkley for sending me an advanced copy!

Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West

As I discussed this story with my buddy read friend, Jayme, I couldn't stop using the word "cute". Despite the bodies, this story has a very strong feel good vibe even when some things are going so very wrong for the characters. Meet the Sarah Joneses, Sarah 17, Sarah 27, Sarah 30, Sarah 39, Sarah 44, Sarah 69 and Fed Sarah who will become Dead Sarah but we will still call her Fed Sarah because it sounds nicer.

It's thanks to Sarah 17 getting into a heap of trouble at her school and having Sister Mary Theresa give her a project in order to make up for her social media misdeeds. Sarah 17 starts “The Sarah Jones Project”, bringing together other Sarah Joneses, allowing them to become friends and confidants, and showing that social media can draw people together in a good way rather than being used in destructive and hurtful ways.

But all is not as it seems. This is where Fed Sarah, who never had the time or inclination to join the group because she was so busy at her job, becomes Dead Sarah...but we call her Fed Sarah still because it sounds nicer. Now the Sarah Joneses are going to become amateur sleuths and then they gather some more amateurs and non amateurs and things keep getting more interesting.

Add in a fictional real, very wet behind the ears, hunky sweetheart of a new FBI agent who wants to do a very good job but has huge reservations about what the job entails. This guy is so torn. He also is dealing with a very traumatic past that has never stopped haunting him. And yes, I couldn't stop calling him cute, with his cute personality and with that little curl that kept falling over his forehead .

When the book started, I was put off by all these Sarahs and thought I would have trouble keeping them straight. But really it turned out to be easy to remember each character and keep them separated. Maybe all stories should be written with the age of the character behind their first name, that method sure did work well for me. This made for a fun buddy read and just a fun read overall.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

Well, this was fun!

As, ADORABLE as the book cover this COZY mystery has something for everyone! A cold case from the past, a murder mystery in the present, and a possible romance-all wrapped up in a unique and entertaining premise! 💝

“The Sarah Jones Project” was born after 17 year old Sarah Jones gets in trouble at her all girls school, Sacred Heart, for some negative social media posts on Instagram. To keep her record clean, Sister Mary Theresa agrees to let her make amends by allowing her to create a “social media project” that would have a positive impact. As a “whimsical social experiment” she asks for other women who share her same “common name” to join her group.

Sarah Jones, age 30, has newly relocated to Minneapolis after ending her engagement, and dropping out of medical school. It turns out that fainting whenever you see blood is not a good sign for future success in the medical field. For years Sarah has been confused with other “Sarah Joneses” but now her common name has given her the opportunity for an instant community of new friends.

Rounding out the group are two teachers, Sarah Jones age 39 and Sarah Jones, age 44, retired attorney and “Murder She Wrote” blogger “Sarah Jones age 69, and Sarah Jones age 27 who is a nanny to another Sarah Jones, their shared name helping her to get hired for the job.

The women agree to identify themselves by their ages, to simplify things-which isn’t as difficult to follow as it sound and they end up garnering quite the Social Media following after they “yarn bomb” an Iconic Cottonwood tree in the Crosby Farm Regional Park and a reporter from the local newspaper is sent to cover the story.

Their Notoriety grows even more when the nanny’s employer, chairman of the Federal Reserve “Sarah Jones” is found dead at the base of the downtown Minneapolis bridge under suspicious circumstances.

What’s a girl named “ Sarah Jones” to do?

Well, investigate of course-enlisting all of your new friends who share your same name, to be fellow amateur detectives!

The story unfolds through mostly through the POV of Sarah Jones (30) and uses a mixed media format of the Video Transcript of Sarah Jones (17), group chat text messages, and transcripts of both Police and FBI interviews which worked really well, keeping the pace fast-so don’t let the 432 page length scare you.

This story DELIGHTFUL story was filled with HUMOR and SURPRISES, making it a book I looked forward to picking up whenever I could.

Expected Publication Date: June 10, 2025

Thank You to Berkley for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts!