I’m so happy to share a review of A Fatal Footnote: A Suspenseful, Cozy Murder Mystery Whodunnit by Joy Patrick, available on Kindle now, July 22, 2025. This short novella is a prequel to jump start the Sweet Cove Cozy Mystery series (book 1 came out a couple years ago, Murder By the Book ) with two more full length novels to follow!

Numbers never lie, but people sure do—as security analyst Grace Jordan discovers when her perfectly ordered world suddenly adds up to foul play.

I gobbled up this 64 page novella in just one sitting and am very much looking forward to reading more mysteries involving Grace! 

Grace lives a quiet and predictable life, happy with her analytical security work. This all changes those, when the psychologist’s office across the courtyard (an office Grace can see directly into from her office) is abuzz following pompous Dr. Ross Kinkaid’s release of the soon-to-be bestseller, Mind Games. And then someone mysteriously disappears and Grace’s analytical mind locks on to a puzzle that she has to solve. Even when no one believes her. 

I was pulled right into this story and got a strong sense of Grace and her quiet life. I loved the phone calls with her aunt – the woman who is clearly pushing Grace to live bigger. I could easily visualize the office set up, and Grace’s staring into an adjacent office building gave me Rear Window vibes. While I guessed the true culprit, I wasn’t sure how Grace was going to prove it, and I enjoyed the journey.

A strong, fast-paced mystery, perfect when you are short on time but want to get lost in an entertaining story.