Each month, I’ll feature a cozy mystery I read long ago. Backlist titles make my heart sing and hopefully you’ll find some new to you reads for your cozy TBR. This month we’re going back to the year 2025! (No so way back, right?!)

272 pages, Hardcover, Published April 29, 2025

How To Have A Killer Time in DC by Sam Lumley – this book was so good and I can’t wait to read book two in the series that just released: Coastal Views to Die For! 

My review first appeared in King’s River Life Magazine:

How to Have a Killer Time in D.C. is book one in the new mystery series Oliver Popps’ Travel Guides to Murder by Sam Lumley, and I am here for it! This was just so much fun.

Oliver Popp is a 24-year-old gay autistic travel writer working for Offbeat Traveler magazine. Oliver likes his routine, and he is a little nervous about his first feature assignment taking him to Washington, D.C. He’s paired up with Ricky Warner, a gay flirty freelance photographer, who definitely lives life a bit more (ok, a lot more) impulsively than Oliver. It’s a delightful pairing.

On the flight to D.C., Oliver is seated next to an old acquaintance, Elise Perkins, who works for a company who designs and builds self-driving cars. She and her fellow employees are headed to D.C. for a congressional hearing. With Ricky’s encouragement, Oliver gets the go ahead to work on a story about the company and hearing. Little does Oliver know what he’s getting into – the hearing shakes up the Capitol in a big way. Not long after, Ricky and Oliver are out one evening and they witness a fatal accident involving these self-driving cars. Was it really an accident or possibly murder?

I grabbed this new mystery on audio and absolutely adored everything about it. Olivier is a kind soul, a main character I could (and did) easily root for. I loved his connections to his mom and friends. The odd couple-like pairing of Ricky and Oliver was so fun and I am still smiling thinking about them.

The mystery pulled me right in and it was especially fun to get an armchair tour of D.C. as Ricky and Oliver worked to uncover the truth. Cleverly plotted and expertly paced, I give this book all the heart eyes. The ending is wonderful, and I cannot wait for more featuring Oliver!