Death by the Sea

 Death by the Sea is a first in a new to me series by Kathleen Bridge.   I have previously read books from her Hamptons Home & Garden series (links to my reviews Better Homes and Corpses,  Hearse and Gardens, and Ghostal Living).  The 2 are set in very different locations with diverse characters but are both based around well-developed relationships and well-constructed mysteries.   I selected this particular time to read this book as I was working to complete the prompt for read a book that starts with the last letter of your previous read- so "D" led me to this book and I was happy to read a lighter cozy after completing Cloud Cuckoo Land 

Death by the Sea by Kathleen Bridge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable first book in a series. The characters are a charming and quirky bunch with a "found" family mixed in with Liz's real Aunt Amelia and her father. The setting in a classic grand hotel in the Vero Beach/Cocoa Beach area of Florida makes for a unique locale. The descriptions in the story make it easy to visualize the setting and Liz and Aunt Amelia's game of assigning a famous screen character to people enables the readers to visualize characters without lengthy descriptions. The actual mystery took a bit to unfold and get started, hence my 3 star rating versus a 4. The mystery is well structured though and the clues are present for those trying to solve without the benefit of the MC's reveal. I look forward to reading more in the series

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Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  

1. Library Love  #LibraryLoveChallenge  Book #15
2. Color Coded   yellow
3. What an Animal Book #11
4. Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2022   Book #17
5. Back List Reader  #Backlistreader  Book #9
6. Beat the Backlist #BTB2022  #27 set on an island
7. Cozy Mysteries   #16 bright colors on the cover
8. Cruisin thru Cozies  Culinary #2
9. Cloak & Dagger  #CloakDaggerChal  Book #18
10. Craving for Cozies  Book #18
11. Around the Year in 52 Books #15. A book without a person on the cover
12. 52 Book Club  #the52bookclub  #20 Related to the word “gold”
13. BooklistQueen  #booklistqueenreadingchallenge2022  #6. With a Bird on the Cover
14. Bookworm #33 Read a book that does not have a person (or people) on the cover
15. Nancy Drew #20. The Clue in the Jewel Box (1943) - read a book with jewelry on the cover
16. Nerd Daily  #NERDREADING2022 #7 set in summer
17. Nerdy Bookworm  #NerdyBookwormChallengeXO #33 A book that has a cover you love
18. OWLS 22  #40 Neville Longbottom: Contains a character who is an underdog
19. Pick your Poison #73 a book with the word "bridge" in the title
20. PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #20. A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read
21. Medical Examiner Challenge 2 Toe Tags
22. Beachcomber Challenge  
• Crime Scene- yacht; hotel room
• Weapon- poison; strangled
• Detectives- Liz/Betty/Ryan
23. Six Shooter Challenge  Target #57  Shot #4
24. 52 books in 52 weeks  #16 Ensemble Cast