The novel started out well. I enjoyed the overall atmosphere, typical of the cozy mystery genre. Unfortunately, the plot wasn't solid enough for me to remain engaged and interested. My attention quickly dwindled.

In a quite town, librarians turned to being part-time investigators for the sake of the town's peace and quiet. This was a cozy mystery book just like I expected—a welcome stress-free time for me.

Gretel is the head librarian for a small town library in Wisconsin. She has two full time employees who are also her best friends, having recently moved to the town. When she finds her neighbor, a somewhat reclusive man who collected books, murdered, she becomes a suspect. This causes her to begin an investigation to learn the real killer's identity. Though I found a few somewhat unbelievable aspects to the plot (e.g., small towns this size would be lucky to have one paid employee, so three seems a bit unrealistic), it was an interesting read. It was pretty easy to figure out the killer, but I did like the interactions between Gretel and the town's new police detective. I suspect we'll be seeing more of that in the next book in the series. Overall, a good read.

Thank you NetGalley and Level Best Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I will be recommending this one but I have to say that it wasn't my favorite. However, I say I will still be recommending because I think I didn't love it because I went in thinking that it would be a cozy mystery and it wasn't at all. I did think it was an interesting story and the character development pacing was well done.

A perfect quick read of a small town cosy mystery. These seem to be everywhere at the minute. Keeps you gripped from the start and a fab way to spend a night guessing whodunnit

This is the first book in a cozy mystery series which is centered Larkspur Library and one plucky employee Greta. She finds a friend after they have been attacked and murdered and immediately becomes a suspect and she is not happy about this. So what does she do - she starts her own investigation pulling in her friends to help her. As she looks into this she finds herself in the crosshairs and at the center of the story.

The author has encapsulated the plucky Greta into someone that I would want to fight for me and even though some of the writing style was not for me I enjoyed this so much so that i will be picking up any more in the series.

Such a cute little whodunnit mystery. Very cozy; easy to curl up by the fire and lose track of time with this one. Annddd small town!!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the Arc of Death Checked Out.

For some reason I had a hard time getting into this book. The storyline isn’t that bad but I was just a little bored. The main character doesn’t do much other than go to her job at the library so that could be why I was a little bored. I wanted to see more of the town she was in. The main detective was also a little mean.
The writing was pretty good but the chapters would also end abruptly and I found it somewhat annoying.
I’m in the fence with this one. I wouldn’t mind reading the next in the series just to see if she does more things around the town.

This book was about a small town murder mystery. I enjoyed following along with the characters and figuring out who murdered the main characters neighbor. While I thought the book was good, I did think it was kind of predictable.

Greta Plank moves to Larkspur, Wisconsin to get away from her troubled past. Greta lives in a beautiful cabin on the lake front working her dream job as a librarian. That is until she finds a dead body and she is the main suspect. We follow Greta determined to clear her name and find the true murderer of Larkspur. While Greta has a determined bubbly personality, the new detective in town is not as warn hearted hearted and is focus on his job.

I could not put this book down. I was reading two books at once but quickly decided this masterpiece needed my full attention. The plot of the story was so intriguing. it really was a who done it story. There were so many potentials and yet I could not figure it out.it had just the right of suspense for being a cozy mystery read, there was no gore. The characters were really well written. Their personalities were shown well. The description left enough room for the imagination. This has become one of my comfort reads.

I really loved the premise and may reread it in the future but I wasn’t into this cozy mystery as it was a slower pace than what I’m used to and I felt myself not able to get into it until I got through quite a few pages each time.

We love a book setting with a library! Cannot get enough of bookish themed books for a start! This was an excellent cosy mystery and although I knew it was going be enjoyable I think I underestimated exactly how much I would love it. Greta was just adorable from the start and you really feel for her but add in wonderful characters like Josie and Iris and it just makes for the perfect cosy crime read.

Greta Plank, who needs a fresh start after losing her sister and having problems with her ex-boyfriend, moves to Larkspur and lives in a house overlooking Larkspur Lake. It was a fairly modest small town, and she loved her job as a librarian. In Larkspur, she also made friends with an old man named Franklin, who was also a book lover, and she often delivered books to his house.

That tranquility is soon disturbed suddenly because one day Greta finds Franklin dead at his house, and it turns out that it was not just an accident but suspected to be a homicide. Even worse, Greta now became number one suspect because she was known very close to Franklin. To clear her name from the accusations, she then carried out a secret investigation with her best friends, Josie and Iris.

This book is very page-turner, fast-pace but doesn’t reduce the story’s depth and characterization. Set in a small town with a lake makes me remember Sarangan Lake here in East Java, Indonesia which I like to visit when on vacation too, so it's easy for me to feel the vibes and the serenity. Even though it’s set in a small town, many characters are involved here. The characters are lovable with their own uniqueness. Detective McHenry with his brooding, Greta with her empathy and cheerful heart, Josie who is done an impressive job with disguise and small talks to gain information. I also really like Louisa—Greta's mom who also acts as Greta's lawyer—she has that badass woman vibes and I love to hear her advice for Greta.

The mystery element is also quite fun to enjoy. Even though there were some parts that seemed cliché and so obvious that I was afraid the ending would be predictable, it turns out it has plenty of surprises and unexpected plot twists. It also gets better when Greta finally teams up with Detective McHenry.

Even though Greta despises Detective McHenry's treatment—that broody, cold, full of suspicion towards her—surprisingly, I can take it in. I think what McHenry did was very reasonable. He probably did need to refine his investigative methods a bit. It's understandable because he had dealt with many murder cases in big city previously. But, I agree that he needs to adapt to a small town in a smoother way.

The thing that bothers me a little is the large number of characters involved, and many of them only introduced once. So, that sometimes it makes me think: “Who was he/she again?”

Overall, I like this book with all elements and characters it has. Hopefully, in the next book, there will be romance as part of the story. Highly recommended if you need light cozy mystery read with small-town background and librarian main characters!

*I recieved this book as an ARC!*

I absolutely loved this book. It was exactly what I needed at the time of reading it!

The book took place in a small town, which is my favourite vibe. I love when everyone knows each other and when something like a "murder" happens it's extremely difficult to think about all these kind people committing a crime.

The who did it was not far out there and completely made sense, but I still didn't see it coming. That is my all time favourite when it comes to mystery books!

I am also happy that the theme of the book was followed and there wasn't a cheesy romance thrown in!

Such a good read, well done! I look forward to checking out more by the author!

Charming small town librarian Greta Plank didn't know when she started making book deliveries that it would lead to finding one of her patrons dead and left to help solve the mystery of his death. Greta begins to investigate all possible suspects, from her friends to suspicious developers, to outsiders. For such a small town, there seem to be plenty of motives for wanting to commit murder. She works around Detective McHenry who she believes suspects her! Will she be able to clear her name before McHenry can "prove" otherwise? A book of mystery, friendship and a tiny bit of romance, "Death Checked Out," is a cozy read for winter!

Thank you to Netgalley and Level Best Books for allowing me to read this one early! Apologies for reviewing late, but the good news is it was published on 12/6/22 so you can get your copy now!

#deathcheckedout #NetGalley

I read this in five hours. Five. Absolutely wrecking my sleep schedule. Wrecking my sleep schedule further because everyone needs to know how frikken amazing this book is!
Librarians working through a whole murder mystery!
Cozy small town, life is perfect but the grumpy guy next door named Franklin who is also loveable and adorable suddenly dies! Leaving his cat named Biff behind!
But gasp! It wasn't an accident! It's murder!
And now Greta, who's been running from her trauma her whole life, is gonna find out what happened to her grumpy guy friend Franklin from next door.
We untangle a web of mystery and hidden secrets and the danger is ever present!
But it's gonna be okay because Greta and Josie are undermining the hot detective to solve the case!
One million stars.
Not all of my questions were answered but that is absolutely not an issue because this book was Soo good.
But if you need ALL the little details and itty bitty loose strings to be tied up, this may not be for you.
Still one million stars.

I have so much fun reading this book I love small-town stories and mysteries, so this has both of them.
Greta finds herself in the middle of losing the staycation, when her neighbor, and close friend is found dead and she’s the one who found him. Detective McHenry First suspect is Greta, and he has no intentions to make your life easier for it.
Greta wants to make sure to clean her name and show the detective that she is not to blame, she starts her own investigation with the help of her two friends from the library where she works at.

This book is such a cozy read and I really like it. I only wish we could have seen a little bit more of the subtle Romance brewing between Greta and the detective hopefully will see some of that in the rest of the series who knows.

This was truly a cozy mystery with a nice cover and title. I found the main character very likeable and I found the book description very good and I immediately wanted to pick it up. The description of the town it self and the rest of the setting was very enjoyable and cozy. The language seemed quite simple at times but it wasn't really something I found to make or break the book. The beginning was a bit slow and some of the parts were unrealistic in a way were a more realistic plot would have aided the book. However, I found the plot twist to be a nice add and it was not something I expected, this made up for the parts were the book became a bit slow.

After a little bit of a bumpy start, I actually enjoyed Death Checked Out by Leah Dobrinska. The writing seemed to be a little awkward at first but it eventually began to flow better.

Greta is a very likeable main character and her and Detective McHenry seem to have some chemistry which I am totally here for! You all already know I love cats so the fact that this story had a cat named Biff, I was hooked

This is also a very "sweet" and "clean" cozy mystery. There is no swearing, no spice, and Greta even prays a few times which I have actually never read in a book before.


Overall, a great start to this sweet, cozy mystery series! If you are looking to try a new series with a likeable heroine, a peaceful setting (except for a few murders), a cat named Biff, and a grumpy detective/possible love interest, I cannot recommend this one enough!

The cover completely hooked me and the cozy mystery vibes kept me reading.

Greta is the library director of a cute, small town. She made friends with her grumpy neighbor and everything was going great until she found his dead body in his house. After the cute, new-to-town detective suspects Greta, she decides to start her own investigation to get to the bottom of this and clear her name.

I really liked this story because it was light, but still had the "there's a killer on the loose and watch your back because you're getting close to the truth" part to it. I wanted to find out who the killer was and I did not see that twist coming (I don't recall any foreshadowing at all, but that might've been just me). Highly recommend if you're in the mood for a light, cozy mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.