Cozy Mystery Book Review: Schooled in Murder

Schooled in Murder

Schooled in Murder is a solid start to a new cozy mystery series that smartly combines amateur sleuthing and closed-door romance.

• Series: A Campus Sleuth Mystery (Book 1)

• Written by: Victoria Gilbert

• Publication date: January 7, 2025

• Mystery type: Cozy mystery

Jennifer (Jen) Dalton is a successful mystery writer and the head of an on-campus university writing center at Clarion University in Virginia. When one of her favorite writing center students gets accused of murdering a university faculty member, Jen uses her knowledge of mysteries to investigate the crime and find out who really pushed the professor to his death.

Schooled in Murder was an enjoyable cozy mystery whodunit and a good start to a more-serious-than-average cozy mystery series. The amateur sleuth is thirty-two years old, intelligent, kind, and grounded. She reminded me of a young Jessica Fletcher (from Murder, She Wrote), though Jen is a bit sassier and definitely more blunt and open to romance than her Cabot Cove counterpart.

Jen isn't entirely on her own. She has several colleagues who also know both the victim and the student suspect (Mia), and they are willing to help Jen find the real culprit. The colleagues include cafeteria manager Christine Kubiak, campus psychologist Zachary Flynn, and librarian Brianna Rowley. All three of the colleagues are likable and have unique personalities and jobs. They all (with the exception of maybe Zachary) have limited parts in the story, so we will have to get to know them better in future books.

The setting, Clarion University, will be familiar to cozy fans who have read Victoria Gilbert's Blue Ridge Library Mysteries (some of the characters from that series have visited the university in the Blue Ridge books). Most of the scenes in the Schooled in Murder take place on the school's campus, but we did get to visit the homes of Jen and her love interest.

Author Victoria Gilbert does a nice job of crafting the mystery and laying out clues in a way that allows the reader to solve the case along with the sleuth. The body drops on the first page, so the mystery is off and running almost immediately.

Romance isn't a massive part of this book, but there is a hint of it. Gilbert uses the popular enemies-to-lovers trope to create a believable closed-door romance between the sleuth and another character.

I'm looking forward to reading the next installment. I would recommend Schooled in Murder to readers who like cozies; traditional mysteries; TV shows like Murder, She Wrote; and mysteries with just a hint of romance.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reading copy of Schooled in Murder from Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

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