Sandra (mycatscanread) - reviewed on 7/19/2012 + 174 more book reviews

"50% Off Murder" by Josie Belle is the first in a new cozy series about a group of bargain-hunting and money-saving friends who call themselves the "Good Buy Girls." They meet at Maggie Gerber's house for this most recent meeting, but one of the members, Claire Freemont, is late. She arrives, bringing dessert, but acts distracted and a bit strange.

The next day Maggie goes to the library where Claire works to take her niece's little boy, Josh, for story time, and winds up helping Claire take some boxes of books to the basement. When they reach the library basement, they find the dead body of a man with Claire's cake knife protruding from his body and a book laying beside him that is from Claire's own personal library. Claire becomes the number one suspect, especially when it becomes known that Claire dated this man back in Baltimore, MD from where she has moved to Saint Stanley. Her friends know that she has more to tell that she is hiding, though. They become the major sleuths in the investigation to clear the name of their friend.

The new sheriff in the small town of Saint Stanley, VA has returned after many years away and it so happens that twenty-four years ago he and Maggie Gerber had a romance. This all adds suspense and a tad of romantic suspense to the story.

This is a good start to a new series that has some great bargain-hunting tips throughout the book and at the end there is a list of more money-saving ideas that I found useful. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series and getting to know the other members of the Good Buy Girls better.

Josie Belle, author of this book, is the pen name of author Jennifer McKinlay, who writes other cozy series.

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