Death in Advertising by Laura Bradford is the first book in the NEW “Tobi Tobias” mystery series. Publisher: Lyrical Underground, February 7, 2017

When Tobi Tobias decided to open her own ad agency, having to moonlight in a pet shop wasn’t part of her vision . . . of course, neither was murder.

Sometimes when opportunity knocks, the door you open leads to a closet. That’s certainly the case for Tobi, whose weekends spent cleaning cages in her best friend’s pet shop may soon be over. She’s just landed her first big break—Zander Closet Company needs a catchy campaign slogan ASAP, and Tobi thinks she’s got the right hook to knock ’em dead: “When we’re done, even your skeletons will have a place.”

But when a real dead body topples out of a showcase closet, she’s about to discover there is such a thing as bad publicity. To save her fledgling business and not get killed by the competition, Tobi takes on a new pet project: solving the murder. But with a stressed-out parrot as the only witness to the crime, Tobi will really have to wing it to put the cagey killer behind bars.

We are introduced to Tobi Tobias who struggles to maintain her business until she get the lucky chance to come up with a winning slogan for a client. Who knew that the slogan would foretell where his body is found and it is this incident that propels our heroine to do all that she can do to save her business.

I love this book that immediately grabbed my attention and was hard to put down. I like how the mystery was set-up giving me enough clues to keep me intrigued in all that was happening on the pages. The narrative was perfectly pitched and visually descriptive in how this story was told as Tobi set forth on solving this murder. Tobi is a likable heroine surrounded by an eclectic cast of characters that included her friend/boss, her upstairs neighbor and her adorable grandfather. One aspect that I like as I was reading was the fact that Tobi did not snoop but rather asked questions that lead to the answers that she needed and it was that approached that enhanced how well this fast-paced drama was presented. With engaging conversations and a feel-good atmosphere, this was a great read and I look forward to reading the next book in this delightfully charming new series that is a welcome addition to the cozy mystery genre.

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