REVIEW: Die, Die Birdie

Die, Die Birdie
Author: J.R. Ripley

**I received a digital copy of this book from Kensington Publishing via NetGalley in return for a fair, honest review**

Amy Simms is realizing her dream of opening a business. She purchased an old Victorian home for the location of Birds & Bees and is dealing with all sorts of pre-opening SNAFU problems: undelivered product, electrical problems, and worst of all, a dead body in her storage room. An older woman who rents an apartment on the second floor of the old house tells the local police that she saw Amy kill the man with a birdhouse hook. So added to her opening week woes are attorney fees, multiple police interviews, and sleuthing to try and clear her name. When the dead corpse is identified as an old flame of hers in disguise, and disturbing banging and scraping sounds are heard in the houses's basement and attic at night, Amy's problems further escalate. Can she juggle her fledgling business stress and defend herself from possible murder charges? Read this book to find out!

I enjoyed this book! Amy Simms is a fun, intelligent main character. At first, I didn't like her tenant, Esther Pilaster (or as the main characters call her behind her back, Esther Pester), but as the story went on the cantankerous old woman became one of my favorite characters.

The idea of a store selling products for bird and bee enthusiasts is interesting. Amy purchases locally handcrafted bird houses and mixes her own specialty bird seed. I would love a store like Birds & Bees! :)

The mystery portion of the plot kept me interested, although I did figure out some of the clues relatively early in the book. It didn't harm my enjoyment of the story though. The characters were enjoyable and developed as well as any light cozy mystery. All in all, a fun, quick read!

Die, Die Birdie is the first book in the Bird Lover's Mystery series. It has a release date of August 16th, 2016.  J.R. Ripley is the pseudonym of Glenn Meganck, writer of the Tony Kozol and Maggie Miller Mystery series. He also writes the Kitty Karlyle Pet Chef mystery series under the pen-name Marie Celine. Check out his website here: www.glennmeganck.com