Great idea and concept for a book. A thoroughly enjoyable read. Highly recommended. .

Well, this was a fun book and a super-fast read! Kate is living in south Florida, grieving her recently passed attorney husband when she gets the chance to put his/her detective skills to work. Stella is found dead on the beach and numerous community members are suspects. This light story carries the reader quickly through the Ft. Lauderdale senior citizen / retired culture as Kate and her buddies solve this murder mystery. A fun beach read!

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read Death with an Ocean View!

The Kate Kennedy Mystery Series is a reissue of the series written in 2004 under the name Nora Charles. I really enjoyed the first book in this series and hope they reissue the rest of them. Kate Kennedy lost her husband as they moved to the small Florida town of Palmetto. She had not wanted to move, she agreed because her husband loved it and she loved her husband. She is a lost soul as the story begins and does not yet feel at home in the condo they purchased. She and her dog go for walks throughout the day and her only friend is her ex-sister-in-law, Marlene. Recently, a developer is trying to get the town council to force the sale of Ocean Vista so he can raze it for a parking lot. Kate reluctantly goes to the townhall meeting and witnesses various disagreements, one involing Stella, the condo board president. When Stella is found murdered, Kate and her friends decide to do some snooping on their own to solve the case. If you are looking for a great mystery then you need to read this book. I can’t wait until the next book is out. The characters are well developed and described in a way that you can picture these seniors. They made me chuckle at various time in the book. The relationship between Kate and Marlene is strong. They have been friends since gradeschool and they put up with one another's foibles and mistakes. The mystery kept me guessing almost until the end as there were several suspects and red herrings thrown in for good measure. A fun mystery.

This is a good fun and light cozy mystery. It is a good book with a different genera of protagonist.

Fun Read!

“Death With an Ocean View” is the first in a series of mysteries about Kate Kennedy. Kate is a new widow; her husband passed away six months prior and right after the couple has moved to Florida for their retirement years. Kate is having a time trying to fit in as a single instead of a couple after so many years of marriage.

With the city trying to decide whether or not to raze the condo facility she lives in, she is pushed into action. When a murder occurs within feet of her unit, she is pulled in. Her late husband, Charlie, was one of New York’s best homicide detectives. Using her past conversations with him and the files that he kept (which she didn’t have the heart to throw out), she uses some of his techniques in trying to solve the murder.

The first book in a series often has a lot of background information about characters, which slow the action a bit. This is true of this book. I suspect that the next books in the series will pick up the action now that we know who is who and how they fit together to form a team that investigates whodunnit.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.