Board to Death by C.J. Connor

Series Name: Board Game Shop Mystery Book #1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: August 22, 2023
Format: Print, Digital

The first in an ulta-charming new “quozy” mystery series starring Ben Rosencrantz, a queer 30-something English professor (and closet scifi fan) who’s returned to his hometown of Salt Lake City to run his family’s board game shop in the trendy Sugar House neighborhood – a community hotspot for players of all ages…and for killer collectors!

Back in his hometown of Sugar House running his family’s board game shop and café, Ben Rosencrantz just can’t seem to get his life to pass go, much less collect $200. Once he was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now he’s a divorced caregiver, looking after his ill father and a Chihuahua named Beans while still figuring out the rules of retail management. At least the town has become more LGBTQ+ friendly than when Ben was a teenager—and that flower shop owner, Ezra McCaslin, enjoys flirting with him.

But despite his usual clientele of gamers, Ben is barely earning enough to keep the store running and stay on top of his father’s medical bills. Then a local toy and game collector named Clive offers him a winning strategy—to purchase a turn-of-the-twentieth-century edition of The Landlord’s Game, the realty and taxation game that inspired Monopoly, at a tenth of the rare edition’s true value. Suspicious of Clive’s shady, low-priced deal, Ben turns the offer down.

Then Clive turns up dead at the front door of Ben’s and a backpack full of $100 bills appears on his doorstep. Now Ben is the #1 suspect in Clive’s death, and unless he and Ezra can prove his innocence and find the real killer, he’ll go to jail for murder—and no amount of double dice rolls will set him free . . .

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Dru’s Short Musing:
Going home should not lead to murder, but it does, and an investigation is afoot.

This was a fast-paced, well-written, with a comfortable tone making it easy to follow along with what the author had intended, quickly becoming a page-turner. When Ben is falsely accused of murder, he and his newly acquired friends start searching for the person responsible and find themselves in a whole lot of situations that some were amusing at best. The author did a fine job in telling this visually descriptive narrative with engaging dialogue, a cast of eclectic characters, and a small-town atmosphere that added to my delight in reading this book. When I thought I knew what was going on, the author changed direction, all to enhance my reading pleasure. I love the idea of a game board shop as the setting. This was a delightfully entertaining book and I look forward to more adventures with Ben, Ezra and their friends.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher.