Death on the Danube: A New Year’s Murder in Budapest is the first book in a new cozy mystery series by Jennifer S. Alderson. I love the idea of having each book in the series set in a different location!
Title: Death on the Danube: A New Year’s Murder in Budapest
Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
Series: Travel Can Be Murder #1
First Published: November 15, 2019
Publisher: Traveling Life Press
Categories: Mystery
Acquired: from the author
*** Thank you to the author, Jennifer S. Alderson, for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
A great start to a fun, new cozy mystery series
Recent divorcee Lana Hansen needs a break. After getting fired from her job as an investigative reporter, she moves to Seattle for a fresh start. But by Christmas Eve, she’s unemployed and penniless. Lana’s landlord, Dotty Thompson is understanding, but still needs Lana to pay the rent.
Besides being a landlord, Dotty also owns Wanderlust Tours – a company that organizes high end travel excursions for professionals/retirees “long on money and short on time”. When one of her tour guides falls ill, Dotty offers a temporary job to Lana – lead a group through Budapest, Hungary for the New Year.
Lana decides the adventure would be the perfect way to ring in the new year (and pay the rent!) and heads to Budapest. Things turn bad quickly when Carl, Lana’s fellow tour guide, is found dead in the Danube River. Putting her skills as an investigative reporter to work, Lana tries to figure out who would have wanted Carl dead, but there’s no shortage of suspects – several people on the tour had a reason to want Carl dead.
Dotty insists the tour must go on, but when another guest turns up dead, Lana has to figure out who the killer is FAST.
An interesting main character
As anyone who has visited this blog knows – I read a lot of cozy mysteries. So it’s always refreshing to meet a unique character that just “makes sense”.
Lana does NOT have her life together. She’s lost her dream job, she can’t pay rent, she’s working odd jobs and her cheating ex-husband is travelling around with his new girlfriend. Life could not be worse.
So travelling around Budapest sounds like a great idea and she makes the most of it.
Most of the time, cozy mysteries have someone solving the murder who is completely out of their element – a baker or bookshop owner or dog walker (not that I mind those at all, but sometimes it’s a stretch). But Lana solving a murder makes sense – her skills as an investigative reporter make her a natural sleuth.
And she’s not perfect (obviously). Lana feels very human and relatable. Not that I’m unemployed and late on rent, but I really like her. In the first few paragraphs I was feeling like Lana was too flaky for me to like her as a character, but within a few pages, I was all on board. I almost laughed out loud when I found out her ex-husband was a magician (The Great Ronaldo) – it was a bit unexpected. She has a good balance of flaws, skill and positive attitude to make her enjoyable without being too annoying.
I think that a main character that I like is one of the most important things of a good cozy mystery series – if I’m expected to come back book after book, I’d better enjoy the people I’m reading about!
Travel the world with Travel Can Be Murder cozy mystery series
One of the other interesting things about this new series is the setting. Most cozy mysteries are set in small towns, with a few in large cities, but this series promises to take us around the world. Alderson has already announced Book 2 and 3 of the series and check out these titles: Book 2 – Death by Baguette: A Valentine’s Date Murder in Paris and Book 3 – Death by Windmill: A Mother’s Day Murder in Amsterdam. I can’t wait!
Alderson is very well traveled and has written many books featuring locations around the globe. I think her travels and knowledge will make this series very realistic and enjoyable. As someone who suffers from wanderlust (but can’t afford to travel more than once or twice a year), I’m really looking forward to all the adventures Lana gets into around the world!
Read Death on the Danube for yourself
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So, chalk up another book towards my #AtoZCozy2020 Reading Challenge!
Jennifer S. Alderson crosses off the “A” in this year-long alphabet challenge. To learn more about the challenge or if you want to join in, check out my blog post about it here.
Thank you so much for your interest in my cozy, and for posting this incredible review!!! I really appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful week!
It was my pleasure Jennifer! I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series (and the next, and the next…)!
It’s great to see a book where the character can feel concrete and relatable without an added traumatic past.
Your review made the book sound really fun! I’m such a sucker for lightweight murder shows (if there can be such a thing) like Father Brown, maybe I should transition to books? And this sounds like a fun start!
Fantastic review 😌
Thanks Arina! I’m so glad you enjoyed my review. I love lightweight murder shows too (I finished binge-watching Murder She Wrote last year LOL). You should definitely give cozy mysteries a try if you haven’t already. And there are ones with different themes (like this one features travel) so you could even find a series that you like that focuses on something you enjoy (food, crafting, books, etc).