Murder’s No Votive Confidence (Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery #1) by Christin Brecher #bookreview #mystery

Title: Murder’s No Votive Confidence

Author: Christin Brecher

Publisher: Kensington

Publication Date: June 25, 2019

Page Count: 400

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

Nantucket candle store owner Stella Wright specializes in creating unique candles for every occasion. But someone sets the stage for murder when a Memorial Day celebration becomes a wedding to die for . . . 

Jessica Sterling’s candlelight-themed nuptials promises to be the perfect kick-off to the summer’s first official holiday weekend. Stella’s thrilled to have been chosen to provide the decorative centerpiece for the wedding ceremony: a two-foot-tall scented unity candle—a symbol of the happy couple’s love. But it looks like the bride-to-be’s uncle won’t be walking his niece down the aisle after he’s found dead. The murder weapon is Stella’s seemingly indestructible candle, now split in two.

When a beloved local bartender is arrested, Stella’s sure a visiting police captain running the case made a rush to justice. With superstitious brides-to-be canceling orders and sales waxing and waning at her store, the Wick & Flame owner decides to do some sleuthing of her own. Abetted by a charming reporter and challenged by the town’s sexiest cop, Stella’s determined to shine a light on the truth and uncover a killer who’s snuffing out her own flame.

Murder’s No Votive Confidence by Christin Brecher is the first book in the new cozy Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series. As with most cozy mystery series each book will have it’s own mystery to  be solved so a reader doesn’t need to worry about cliffhangers and will get a full story in one book.

Stella Wright owns a candle store on the charming small island of Nantucket. With Memorial Day quickly approaching islanders know business will soon be picking up and  Stella already has a big wedding event to prepare for where she will make a special unity candle along with smaller candles for the guests.

As Stella is finishing up last minute preparations the wedding guests had begun to arrive for the big event. When the bride has problems locating her uncle that is supposed to walk her down the aisle no one expected to find him murdered, and with Stella’s unity candle lying nearby she can’t help but want answers to the crime.

I had wavered between 3 and 3 1/2 stars for this opening book of the new Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series. The story was a solid start but lacked a lot of depth to those around our main character so I have a feeling it will need some refreshing to my memory by the time book two comes along as only the charming setting stood out to me.  I do think the series had potential as it continues though so I decided on 3 1/2 stars for this beginning.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Visit Christin’s website at http://www.christinbrecher.com to learn more about the Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series, and to sign up for the newsletter!

Christin Brecher was born and raised in New York City, where her family and many childhood friends still reside. As such, she feels she is as much of a small-town girl as any. The idea to write the Nantucket Candle Maker series sprang from her life-long connection to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Spending summers there as a child, Christin read from her family’s library of mystery novels; after which she began to imagine stories inspired by the island’s whaling heyday, its notoriously foggy nights, and during long bike rides to the beach. After many years in marketing for the publishing industry, followed by years raising her children, Murder’s No Votive Confidence is Christin’s debut novel.