Booksellers are some of my favorite cozy mystery detectives. And a bookshop set in a castle? Yes, indeedy. Bookshop co-owner and manager Shelby, her aunt Edie, and her best friend Erica are all relatable, appealing characters. This is a nice escape read, zipping by as Shelby sticks her nose in where it doesn't belong and unmasking the killer. I want to go back and read the first entry in the series now, too.

Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an enjoyable story. I liked the plot and the characters. I felt like the middle was a little slow as it didn't really move the mystery along very much. It ended rather abruptly, but I felt like the killer had been hinted at for most of the book. . I would definitely read the next book in the series.#DeathOnThePage #NetGalley

This is not a bad book, it is just not doing anything for me. Perhaps this is because I have not read book 1, but I did not feel invested in the characters or their lives. There are elements in here I liked, and I can see myself revisiting this book at another time to see if it sparks interested. However, at this moment, the best I can say is that it is inoffensive.

I was looking forward to the second Castle Bookshop mystery and Death on the Page didn't disappoint! Essie Lang has one again written an intriguing and fun little mystery here and make me feel as if I were a part of the story. I can't wait for the series to continue!

#DeathonthePage
#NetGalley
A solid, cozy mystery. It has a good plot with a hard to guess plot. I think many cozy mystery lovers will like this series.

Who wouldn't want a best selling author to not only visit your book store, but would want to stay overnight near it? Shelby Cox has reservations at first. The book store is in Blye Castle. No one has used the renovated guest suite before. What about security? What if after her objections are over come something goes wrong? Reader, it does.

The engaging charismatic author is found quite dead lying a the bottom of the stairs. Lang presents us with a cozy that harks back to the locked room mysteries of the golden age. With each book in this new series, the characters become more real. Shelby and Aunt Edie continue to explore the ramifications from the surprise ending in book one. Taylor's pregnancy is progressing to the waddle instead of walk stage. She is now hosting a mother in law who is every bit as demanding as the baby on the way. Matthew continues to be simultaneously charming and inscrutable; a neat trick. Our chocolatier Erica-- who I wish did mail orders -- continues to shine. Even J.T., no longer an itinerant cat, has fulled jumped into Shelby's heart, as has Zach.

The perp puzzle is not easily solved. Lang's suspects are all plausible, having logical places within the story. As in book one, her professional knowledge of book store ownership brings a grounding feeling of reality. The concerns of a retail shop keeper are provide a great insider's viewpoint.
It is fall in the Thousand Islands in book 2, and Lang makes this time of year every bit as enticing as she did with the summer tourist period. I look forward to reading about Blye Castle during the months to come.

Recommended for all cozy mystery readers.

historical-places-events, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, murder-investigation

A bookshop in a castle on an island in North America is a delightful idea and the fact that it has a matching shop on the mainland year round is good business sense. The co owners are niece and aunt, but the aunt is sidelined with a knee injured too soon after replacement surgery. So niece is tasked with a lot more work including an author's book signing, issues within the castle management, and a personal need to find out who murdered that author in spite of the cautioning by all of her friends. Let the sleuthing begin! A nicely twisty plot with plenty of red herrings and a budding romance or two. Loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

I love the setting of this series, it is perfect for book lovers. I wish the mystery was a little more complex, but it is a cute read nonetheless.

Better than most cozies I've read lately. All of Lang's characters get fair treatment and enough backstory to make them more than one-dimensional. I was fairly confident in the killer; so, what worried me most was the amount of espresso Shelby drank in the late afternoon and evening! This series is set in a part of the country with which I was completely unfamiliar and it was compelling enough to make me do at least one Google search. I look forward to reading more about Shelby's mom and her mysterious past.

This being the second in the series, I will have to go back and read the first after this one. Well crafted mystery, with lovable and fun characters and books.wrapped in a fast paced story with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing.

A fun little cozy that takes place in a very unique setting. Shelby has recently come to live in the Thousand Islands, and to work with her aunt at the Castle Bookstore, with the sister bookstore on the island. Much to her family and Coast Guard boyfriend's dismay, she soon finds herself embroiled once again in a the investigation of a murder, this time of an author who just did a book signing a her store. The second in a series, this reads fine as a stand alone, although there are plenty of call backs to the prior book. The story also has a thread of a personal mystery having to do with Shelby's own family that runs throughout, which seems to be a tie for the series.

Death on the Page is the second installment in the Castle Bookshop Mystery series set between Blye Island and Alexandria Bay, NY and featuring bookshop co-owner Shelby Cox. Tourist season is winding down as winter approaches and the last activity scheduled for the bookstores are the book signings on the mainland and in the castle on Blye Island by famed mystery writer, Savannah Page.

The mainland signing gets off to a rocky start when a local woman approaches the author and accuses her of stealing her manuscript and then publishing the book as her own. Savannah has asked if she can spend the night at the castle after the island signing because she would like to learn more about the last owner, Joe Cabana. The reputed mobster turned smuggler is reported to haunt the island and Savannah thinks that staying upstairs in his rooms, which are normally off limits to the public, will help add to her story line. But, Savannah has a strange request - she doesn't want either her fiance or editor to stay with her, she just wants a security guard to stay upstairs with her and island/castle caretaker, Matthew Kessler who resides in his own home on the island.

When Savannah is discovered dead at the bottom of the stairs leading to the castle's secret passageways, nobody is quite sure what happened. But, Chief Stone who has had it in for Matthew from the start (see book one in the series) is happy to point a finger in his direction. Knowing that Matthew is not the killer, Savannah ignores the warnings of her boyfriend Coast Guard agent Zack Griffin and her Aunt Edie and finds herself drawn into a dangerous investigation.

A good addition to the series, this one gets off to a slow start and does bog down a little in the middle, but the last third of the book will attract and keep your attention to the final reveal. A unique location, the author providing more information about each of the secondary characters and a maturing romance will mean tuning in to see what Winter will bring to the the Thousand Islands.

I received an advanced copy of Death on the Page from NetGalley via Crooked Lane Books. While not required to write a review I am more than happy to offer my honest opinion.

Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to Crooked Lane Books for being kind enough to send me an arc of the book Death on the Page, a castle bookshop mystery via NetGalley.
The plot of this book involved Eddie and Shelby working at a bookshop near Blyre castle, as a promotion tour for their bussiness, they invited a writer Savannah Page for booksigning tour in their book shop and after the signing the rest at a suite in the castle. The castle had its own mysteries and ghosts so it wasn't permitted to the public but with Savannah opportunities to expand the promotion of castle was also in the plans.

Savannah when came with her fiance Liam was supposed to stay alone at the castle, but the next day, her dead body was found in the secret passage, a lot of items were stolen too, small items so there began the murder mystery of who caused it. Due to Eddie's injury, only Shelby worked in the bookstore and got seeked in the mystery. Will she be able to solve the mystery?

In totality, the book was well written, a bit long but the story build up was interesting. The cover of the book though didnt do justice to the plot or was anywhere related to it. The characters were well written. The con, was that the read was a bit slow, but sufficient for the reader to analyse the mystery on their own.

The setting of Essie Lang's A Castle Bookshop Mystery series is spectacular. I have never been to that part of New York and it fascinated me. 'Death on the Page' concerns the murder of an author who comes to Shelby and Edie's bookstore for a signing of her latest true crime novel. Intertwined with the solving of the murder is the story of Shelby's abandonment by her mother when she was a child and how this impacts her life. That is a bit ponderous and definately depressing. Frankly I would appreciate more resolution so that Shelby could move on positively in her life. Her dysfunction is getting old. I was surprised by the ending as I had picked a different suspect. As a cozy reader I appreciate not being able to figure out the plot immediately. I will look forward to more, and I hope soon as there is more to be heard about Shelby's mother and about the unsolved murder of Matthew's wife.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Death on the page
With thanks to Crooked Lane books , NetGalley and Author for advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
This is the second book by Essie Lang and my first.
I love the setting,a castle with secret passageways and a bonus of a book shop.
Highly entertaining mystery,plenty of suspects and twists.
Loved the characters, definitely didn’t know who the killer was until the ending , that what a good mystery is about ..
I will go back and read the first book and definitely look out for the next .

In Death on the Page, Thousand Islands bookstore owner Shelby hosts a signing for true crime author, Savannah Page. The author rounds off her event at the store by spending a night in Blye Castle, to research the topic of her next book. A prohibition-era mobster owned the castle and it’s rumoured that his ghost still haunts the grounds. In an Agatha Christie style plot, Savannah’s body is discovered the next morning, in a secret passage. The only other person there that night was the butler… I loved the bookstore setting, and the banter between the characters!

Whew, I felt like this took forever to read. I just never really got into it. I love cozy mysteries. I'm aware that the heroines in them are nosy and the things that they do would never fly in the real world, and I'm ok with that, I just didn't connect with this story or the characters at all. I will say though, that the book DID pick up at about 84% of the way through. I had to work hard to keep reading this one though. My hope is that the author is working on finding their voice so I'll pick up book 3 before deciding if I'm going to pass on this writer going forward.

3 1/2 stars

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2990678381

DEATH ON THE PAGE by Essie Lang is a well-written cozy mystery novel that is the second book in the Castle Bookshop Mystery series. The story takes place in Alexandria Bay and Blye Island, New York and the main character is Shelby Cox.

Shelby is co-owner of two bookstores and she is finishing her first season at the annex store located in a historic castle. She and her aunt Edie arrange to host a true crime author including book signings at both bookstores. The author, Savannah Page, is spending one night in the castle for research for her next book. The next morning Savannah is found dead in the castle. With this interesting setting, the entertaining and absorbing plot unfolds.

The author did a great job of pulling the reader into the setting and characters. Her writing is very picturesque. There were plenty of suspects and red herrings. Shelby’s character is well developed and the writing is such that the reader experiences her emotions. I would like to see more character depth in the secondary characters as the series progresses.

While this is the first book I have read by Essie Lang I look forward to reading the other books in the series. Overall, it was engaging, expressive and compulsively readable.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books, Essie Lang and Net Galley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Note: this is also the second book in the Castle Bookshop Mystery series.

Although this book doesn’t release until March 2020, it is the perfect cozy fall read! Murder mysteries follow a distinct plot pattern, so other elements (character, prose, etc.) are what make books in this genre stand out. The setting in this series is definitely unique! Our main character works in a bookstore located within a historical castle.

This series is perfect for fans of whodunits.

<i> Death on the Page </i> is a cozy murder mystery that follows of the ongoing exploits of Shelby Cox a bookstore owner in a small town. Shelby is a smart newcomer to town who is always getting herself in trouble trying to solve murders despite repeated warnings from the police to stay away. <i> Death on the Page </i> is the second novel in a set of Castle Bookshop murder mysteries written by Essie Lang.

Shelby Cox has come to live and work with her Aunt Edie in Alexandria Bay. They run two bookstores, one on the mainland, and one in Blye Castle on a nearby Island. A visiting author, Samantha Page, is killed in Blye Castle just after she has conducted two very successful book signings. She has many local fans, admiring authors and an entourage of agents and admirers who are all considered to be suspects. Shelby cannot help but feel responsible for bringing Samantha to town and therefore she gets dragged into the investigation in spite of herself.

I realize this is a cozy mystery and therefore not as graphic and complicated as murder mysteries can be, but I found this book a bit extreme in that regard. The only character we get to know is Shelby Cox the quasi investigator. Even the victim appears for a very brief cameo before she is killed and thus her character is poorly developed. My main concern is the many characters flit in and out of the story and we don’t get to know any of them.

The story development is very simple and therefore, for me, not interesting. There are parts of the book that really drag. There are also many departures from the storyline such as a book club meeting and an encounter with and old friend of Shelby’s mother. They add very little to the storyline.

There are many read herrings in the story, but they are not developed thoroughly enough to create interest. Even the reveal seems to come out of nowhere. What set the murderer off? Why was Shelby’s best friend even there?

I admit I am probably not the intended audience. I also realize that this book is intended to be a comfortable quick read, but I think it goes to far in that direction and therefore loses my interest. I give it a 2 on 5. I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.