I didn’t plan on being a single mother at the age of 42. I thought that ship had sailed as I docked on the perimenopause stage of life, but fate had other plans. Meeting the insurance salesman in town for a convention had seemed like harmless fun until he packed up and went back home, and I ended up pregnant. He didn’t seem interested in answering any of my texts, so I raise Giana on my own now. I’m not really on my own, though. I guess you can count my mother a support as she lives in Northwoods, too, but not really. She hasn’t stopped judging as she likes to say, “April, you have to stop making these poor choices.” I try to rely on her only when it’s absolutely necessary.

My real support comes from the other members of the Monthly Murder Movie Club. I know, what’s that? I thought the same thing when I saw the first advertisement for it when I was in the final stages of pregnancy and kind of going out of my mind. I’ve always loved mysteries. I was a big reader in my youth, always hiding away in my room reading. You could say I was also hiding from life’s responsibilities, but it was what it was. I was nervous attending the first meeting, which is always held on a Monday, but everyone was super nice.

We start the meeting with lots of snacks. Junior Cash makes the best popcorn in all of Northern Michigan, in my opinion. Then we watch half the movie. Pamela, the owner of the Northwoods Movie Theater, stops the projector. Those of us at the monthly meeting gather in the middle of the theater to talk about the suspects and clues. We write out our best guesses to the solution of the mystery. Yoly, a former high school principal, and our unofficial leader, holds onto our guesses until the movie is over. Then she reveals who solved the murder mystery closest to the actual solution. The winner takes home a small plastic trophy for the month. It’s really just for bragging rights, but it’s fun. I won the trophy one time only, but it was sitting on the coffee table when I brought Giana home from the hospital two days after she was born, and I felt proud.

Rishard, a Hawaiian shirt, Crocs wearing teddy bear of a man has become Giana’s pseudo grandpa. He loves my daughter. Everyone does, really, even Roberta who doesn’t love much at all except to talk about her service in Vietnam when she was a young woman. Now, she’s 72 and takes care of her 97-year-old mother whom she calls Mamo. Roberta can calm Giana down faster than anyone else in the group, which amazes us all every time it happens.

Everything has been going as swimmingly well as possible considering the circumstances until today, when we walked into our October viewing of Murder Meets Michigan. Why? Because there in the middle of the lobby in front of the concession stand was our beloved Junior Cash, with a knife through his chest. Now, that’s a real mystery none of us saw coming. It’s up to the Monthly Murder Movie Club to solve this homicide and protect the reputation of the Northwoods Movie Theater. Found family can do a lot when they’re connected through shared interests. Who knew the most recent interest would be solving a real murder!

Murder Movie Club (Murder on a Monday): A Monthly Murder Movie Club Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: February 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Murder: best served with popcorn.

That’s the mantra for the members of the Monthly Murder Movie Club at The Northwoods Movie Theater. Every month, this eclectic group of northern Michigan residents gather to watch a murder mystery movie on the big screen. After stopping the projector in the middle of the movie, the members gather to discuss the crime and suspects, each making a whodunit pick before resuming the movie. The hair dresser with the scissors? The jilted lover with poison?

But nothing is normal on this Monday morning when the club members find the ticket-taking popcorn maker John E. Cash in the lobby of the theater, deader than any actor in their beloved movies. Using their unique talents and eccentricities, the Monthly Murder Movie Club members work collectively to solve the crime before the Northwoods Police force does. Members strive to protect the reputation of their beloved theater–and to protect their Monday meetings–because what each member is discovering is that there is so much more to their Monday club than a good old-fashioned murder mystery.

Found family, new friends, and murder investigations!

About the author
Marcy Blesy is the author of over thirty books including the popular cozy mystery series: The Tucson Valley Retirement Community Cozy Mystery Series, a hilarious misadventure in amateur sleuthing. Her adult romance mystery series includes The Secret of Blue Lake and The Secret of Silver Beach, set in Michigan. The Ghost Texter Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series, featuring a sleuthing kindergarten teacher in Michigan was recently released. Children’s books include the best-selling Be the Vet series along with the following early chapter book series: Evie and the Volunteers, Niles and Bradford, Third Grade Outsider, and Hazel, the Clinic Cat.