My favorite cozy mystery series just keeps rolling along, and I'm loving it. Ellery Adams has created a series with real depth and substance, and each book is a chapter in Olivia Limoges' life. Previous books have dealt a great deal with Olivia's past, but Poisoned Prose finds her devoting a lot of thought to her future. Having always believed that she was meant to live alone, it's a huge step to even consider entering a committed relationship with Sawyer Rawlings, but that's what Olivia is doing.

Before you start to think this is a one-woman book/series, nip that thought right in the bud. Each member of the Bayside Book Writers is a strong character who has progressively evolved through each book, and some fans may not be happy with how things turn out for two of the members here in this latest book. Following this group not only shows how they put their heads together to solve crimes, it also shows how a critique group can work to help writers produce marketable novels.

The setting of Oyster Bay, North Carolina, makes me hear the waves on the shore and smell the salt in the air. I'd love to tag along with Olivia and her dog, Captain Haviland, as they use a metal detector on the beach each day to look for treasures. And while the setting and all those fully-fleshed characters work their magic, there's a genuine puzzler of a mystery to solve as well.

If you're the type of reader who's looking for a little less fluff in the cozy mysteries you read, I highly recommend Ellery Adams' Books by the Bay series. When I stumbled across them, it was as though I'd borrowed Olivia's metal detector and found a gold doubloon.

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