Murder at Pirate's Cove

Secrets and Scrabble, Book 1

By: Josh Lanyon

Narrated by: Matt Haynes

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

First in an adorable new cozy series!

Ellery Page, aspiring screenwriter, Scrabble champion, and guy with worst luck in the world when it comes to dating, is ready to make a change. So, when he learns he's inherited both a failing bookstore and a falling-down mansion in the quaint seaside village of Pirate's Cove on Buck Island, Rhode Island, it's full steam ahead!

Sure enough, the village is charming, its residents amusingly eccentric, and widowed police chief Jack Carson is decidedly yummy (though, probably, as straight as he is stern). 

However, the bookstore is failing, the mansion is falling down, and there's that little drawback of finding rival bookseller and head of the unwelcoming committee Trevor Maples dead during the annual Buccaneer Days celebration.

Still, it could be worse. And once police chief Carson learns Trevor was killed with the cutlass hanging over the door of Ellery's bookstore, it is.

Note: This story contains no sex or violence.

©2020 Josh Lanyon (P)2020 Josh Lanyon

LOVED

great story and great narration!!!!! Also I honestly LOVED the fact that it was gay romance but not filthy....it’s was honestly refreshing and super appreciated.....yeah I am a young gay guy but the majority of the time in MM romance the authors are women and don’t really understand how that part works so it comes off over the top and fake......so this simple budding romance with none of that was SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice!

Cozy indeed

Story: 7
Writing: 8
First MC: 9
Second MC: 7
Secondary characters: 6
Mystery: 6
Sexual tension: 3
Humor: 5
Hotness: 1
Product placement: 5
Ridiculousness: 5
Annoying: 1
Audio: 10
To re-read: 10

Light like a summer read, loved the secondary colorful characters...The Chief? we basically know nothing about the dude

Interesting, cute and questionable

Overall, it’s a very enjoyable story.

The town seems to have its own character and the township is charming. However, I feel like with all that story I didn’t leave with everything I wanted - which is fine since it’s the beginning of a series!

I will say that I am looking forward to the next book. Maybe after reading the second instalment I will be able to better judge how I feel about this one lol.

2 and a half stars

Murder at Pirate's Cove is an ok book but I didn't like the main character. He was annoying and I never warmed up to him. The other characters in the story were more interesting.

loved it!

a great start to a new series. I love Josh Lanyon's mysteries, and can't wait until the next one!

Exactly what I wanted!

Was looking for something reminiscent of Murder, She Wrote; but also craving something I could relate to with a more modern queer lens. A wonderful listen, can’t wait for the rest.

Great cozy mystery!

M/M cozy-mystery, law-enforcement, family-dynamics, friendship, bookseller, small-business, small-town, island-life, amateur-sleuth, murder, murder-investigation, verbal-humor, situational-humor*****

I had gotten book three in the series from NetGalley and liked it so much that I got this and the next one in audio. The story truly follows all the cozy criteria and has a great plot, fascinating characters, and laughs. It also has a police detective, a bookshop owner (and former professional TV actor) named Ellery (like Ellery Queen mystery writer!), a frenetic puppy named Watson (is there any other kind?), the Scallywags, and the Silver Sleuths. It's set in an island off New Jersey (USA) that's accessible by ferry (that's why they can have cars). Ellery inherited the bookshop and rundown Dutch Colonial from an ancient of his father and has only been a resident for three months when he finds the first murder victim in his store. And then he gets convicted in the local press, so what else can be done but learn to become a sleuth? Loved it!
Matt Haynes is the laid back voice actor who really knows how to underplay the laughs.

Another Really Good One from Josh Lanyon

I have read the first and second books in this series and immediately purchased the audios for both!

Not bad

While this is far from my favorite cozy or even one I think had excellent writing what it did have is a gay character who has a story that’s not about being gay.

As a gay male I don’t see any main characters in books who are gay and have a story not centered around their sexuality.

Thank you for writing this, I will be listening to the rest of the books.

Representation is important

Good story. Good narration.

I fell in love with the mystery genre when I was very young. I was reading Encyclopedia Brown right along side Sherlock Holmes. This story had so many of the elements that I adore about both. I was smiling when one of the characters mentions Encyclopedia Brown.

As usual, Josh Lanyon has created some interesting characters. This first volume has all the feel of an origin story. I can't wait for the next volume where to get more background on Ellery's story.

The narration was a good addition to the story, and I enjoyed the character voices.

Great start!

Get ready for a new murder mystery by Josh Lanyon. It’s got this cozy-mystery vibe to it that I loved, you know the small-town setting where everyone knows everyone and is up in everyone’s business. The gossiping old ladies, the almost mandatory bookstore owner turned amateur sleuth. This book has it all.

Ellery Page recently inherited a bookshop from his late aunt, and in need of a change I his life he moves to Pirate’s Cove located on a small island off the coast of Rhode Island. The mansion he also inherited needs a bit, or a lot, of work and his aunt seemed to be a bit of a collector – of everything. Getting both the mansion and the bookshop back in good order requires a lot of will and determination not to say countless of hours of hard work. But Ellery wants to make it work in this quaint town and refuses any offer to sell. But when said prospect buyer is found dead in his store he encounters more problems than he knows how to handle. However the police chief Jack Carson is most intriguing and Ellery can’t help but to be drawn to the man.

As stated in the blurb of the book, there is no sex near it. It’s a mystery through and through with the, very, occasional romantic interlude and only minor at that. So if you are looking for romance, declarations of love, the longing gazes and whatnot, this might not be the book for you. It might happen someway down the line, but we are not there just yet. I kind of like that. I’m a huge fan of mysteries of all kinds and don’t need an abundance of romance in my books, it does add favour to it, but this book stands great on its own without it. As for the mystery itself I do think it was a good one. I did figure it out pretty quickly but I still loved watching our main characters trying to make all the pieces fit together. And spending time in Pirate’s Cove was a lot of fun, the murders might or might not be included in that statement.

Matt Haynes was a great performer for this book. I think he captured the feel of this eccentric town obsessed with anything pirate related. I think he really captured both Ellery and Jack really well and his voices for them made it easy to keep track and follow the dialogues. Production-wise it felt like there was a harshness to the production of it. It was most noticeable in the beginning of the listen as you got used to the sound after a few minutes. It wasn’t the narration itself, because it was great and I’d love to listen to more of Hayne’s in the future and hopefully also go back to Pirate’s Cove.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

How is this even MM when there was no romance?

I was seriously disappointed with this book, not only did it start in exactly the same way as Lanyon's magic series, it took ages to warm to the characters. The unoriginal story arc meant mystery wasn't a mystery, and zero romance made this book the aural equivalent of 'watching paint dry'. I would say I expected better from this author, but from her most recent output, I don't. Lanyon has lost her edge.

cozy mystery

enjoyable low angst mystery with a hint of romance, great for listening to whilst pottering around the house