Murder A La Christie by Marilyn Levinson is the first book in the new “Lexie Driscoll” mystery series. Publisher: Oak Tree Press, February 2014

College professor Lexie Driscoll is leading the first meeting of the Golden Age of Mystery book club in the upscale Old Cadfield home of her best friend, Rosie Gordon, when Sylvia Morris falls ill and dies. The book club members assume Sylvia has died of her heart condition, but Lexie suspects foul play. Before the meeting she heard Sylvia’s neighbor, Gerda Stein, threaten Sylvia, and remembers having seen a vase of lilies of the valley, which disappeared during the evening. Did Gerda pour the toxic water into Sylvia’s iced tea to stop her from publishing a book exposing her father’s Nazi past?

I like it. In this evenly paced tale, book club members being murdered, similar to the Agatha Christie book they are reading and our heroine, Alexis (Lexie) takes it upon herself to find the guilty culprit, while working closely with the detective on the case. Lexie soon discovers it’s not as easy as Dame Christie made it in her books, especially when she receives threats letting her know that she’s hit a nerve. The author did a great job in mixing things up by keeping the story exciting and interesting and teasingly giving us clues into all the suspects that kept me guessing throughout this enjoyable whodunit.

FTC Disclosure – The author sent me this book, in the hopes I would review it.