About Strike the Death Note
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting - Rocky Mountains
Independently Published (June 26, 2025)
Number of Pages — 250 Digital
ASIN: B0F336797V
With just two weeks left of the summer at Aerie Pines, music shop owner Octavia Fields should be getting ready to head back to the nomadic life she lives most of the year—but the season is set to end in a minor key for her little shop.
Octavia’s determined to do everything she can to increase sales so her employees won’t have to bow out for the next season. If she’d known it would involve coming across a body with a conductor’s baton sticking out of its chest, she might not have been so eager.
While Octavia is trying to focus on her shop’s problem, music students who know she played a part in catching the last killer keep telling her what they know about the victim. She wants to pass the information on to the detective, but when one of her employees becomes a suspect, Octavia has no choice but to become the conductor of her own investigation.
Trying to save her shop, solve a murder, handle threats, and deal with her growing feelings for the lead detective is keeping Octavia’s score full—but she needs to find the sour note before someone else plays their finale!
Review
A summer violin shop owner looking to revitalize her slowing business finds a dead body instead.
Pursuing a possible answer to the continuing future of her summer music camp violin shop, Octavia Fields is strolling near the grounds of the university’s administration building, killing time before she meets with the director when she comes across a man kneeling over the body of a dead woman with a conductor’s baton sticking out of her chest. Immediately calling in the police, she is reunited with the same team who investigated an earlier death at the music camp, including Detective Jack Price. Although determined to avoid getting involved in the investigation, Octavia is nevertheless drawn in as people seek her out for information and to share their thoughts. Strike the Death Note is the second book in author Rebecca McKinnon’s fresh and fun Octavia Fields Mystery series. With its quirky main character, fun music-themed setting, and slow-burn romance, I was all in for this well-paced, cozy mystery.
The heart of this series is the main character, Octavia Fields, a woman who definitely marches to the sound of a different drummer. Sans shoes and cellphone, she’s a woman more in tune with simpler living and the natural world. Since their last meeting, she and Jack have drifted apart, but there is still a spark between the two, and it is a joy to watch it slowly gain in intensity as they are, once again, thrown together.
The plot gets underway immediately with Octavia’s accountant’s concerns about her violin shop’s financial future. With more going out than coming in this summer. He suggests that Octavia will need to make some cuts and hard choices to remain viable next summer. Soon after, she discovers the body of the dead cellist, and the case is immediately opened. Throughout the book, I enjoyed Octavia’s relationships with her friends involved in the orchestra or camp, as well as her staff members who took complete charge of the store despite her well-meaning ideas for displays. The musical theme is delightful, and I enjoyed the many musical references and activities. With a number of people to cross off the list of suspects and red herrings to eliminate, there is a lot of interesting detecting to follow on the way to a plausible resolution to the case.
I recommend STRIKE THE DEATH NOTE to cozy mystery readers,
especially those who enjoy stories with a musical theme, a Rocky Mountains
setting, or a free-spirited protagonist.
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Thanks for the great review! I'm so glad you enjoyed my quirky character.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the first book in the series so much that I scheduled this one for my birthday!
DeleteI liked the review, thank you.
ReplyDelete