YES! A new series by Victoria Gilbert! I love her Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, so I was delighted when I saw that she would have a new series, set in the same area, but with new characters! I’m excited to share a review for this five star read! To order your copy, visit these order links!

Schooled in Murder (Campus Sleuth Mysteries #1) by Victoria Gilbert 

272 pages, Hardcover

Publication January 7, 2025 

Crooked Lane Books

Jennifer ‘Jenn’ Dalton is the director of the writing center at Clarion University (same college where Amy’s husband Richard from the Blue Ridge series teaches). Jenn is also a successful cozy mystery author, so she’s busy with working full time and writing! 

Despite her busy schedule, Jenn is happy to mentor students like Mia, a talented romance writer. Many in the English Department at Clarion look down their noses at genre fiction, and Mia has several unpleasant (and loud!) encounters with one professor in particular. 

So it doesn’t look good when that professor is found murdered, clutching one of Mia’s assignments. The police zero in on Mia as the prime suspect, but Jenn just knows she can’t be guilty. Using her sleuthing skills she’s acquired writing cozy murder mysteries, Jenn dives into an investigation of her own, along with Christine Kubiak, a cafeteria manager at the university, Zachary Flynn, the charming but annoying campus psychologist, and Brianna Rowley, a university librarian.

This was such a fun read. Solid mystery with not just one murder, but two and ending had me sitting straight up in bed! I love the sleuthing team, especially that they all come from different areas of the university. It’s so fun that Jenn lives in Taylorsford – I love the crossovers from the other series. There’s also a romance subplot that is entertaining and just the perfect amount to balance the mystery. Wonderful cozy details bring the story to life. I also enjoyed the campus setting. I was sad when I finished!

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