Dead and Breakfast
By: Rosiee Thor & Kat Hillis
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 336
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): The new vampires in town are sinking their teeth into solving a murder…
Married odd couple Arthur and Sal are totally normal. They wear sunscreen, not because the sun can kill them, but because even the undead need a skincare regimen. They eat garlic whenever they want, though it gives Sal indigestion. They can talk to creatures of the night, but only the raccoons that rifle through their garbage. Really, they don’t bite… except into delicious baked goods.
Ready to settle down and stay out of trouble, the two have opened a bed & breakfast in the idyllic, if not-so-paranormal-friendly, town of Trident Falls, Oregon. But trouble finds them when the mayor is discovered dead in their begonias with two puncture wounds in his neck. With the help of a werewolf barista, the elven town coroner, and a very human city manager, Arthur and Sal will need to prove they aren’t literally out for blood by catching a killer…
First Impressions
The punny title and the cute cover definitely sucked me in with this one. I was intrigued by a cozy mystery that involved vampires and a bed and breakfast. Because of these factors, this book was on my list well before I was offered the opportunity to read it for review.
What I thought
Maybe my expectations were too high?
Arthur and Salvatore are two married vampires that recently moved to the town of Trident Falls and bought a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, Trident Falls isn’t very paranormal friendly and it gets less so when the mayor’s body is found in their garden drained of blood with puncture wounds. When the Sheriff takes in Salvatore for questioning, Arthur decides to take it upon himself to solve the murder.
I don’t know what it was about this story but it just did not hook me in. I didn’t find any chemistry between Arthur and Salvatore and actually found both of them a little irritating, especially Salvatore. I felt more that Arthur found him irritating too rather than in love.
They frequently make fun of the sheriff for being a bumbling idiot, but Arthur runs off with any small clue to immediately suspect the next person. He rarely has anything more than one piece of evidence and then he becomes heavily convinced they’re the murderer. I honestly don’t know how he solved the murder other than pure lock.
I did like the medical examiner, but found she wasn’t in enough of the story for my liking. The mystery aspect was just ok. I found the murderer to be relatively obvious and even at the end wasn’t quite sure why he did what he did.
This story was fine. I don’t know if the miss for me was my high expectations or the writing itself. I wasn’t crazy about the two main characters and can tell this is going to be an ongoing series. I would be willing to try one more to see if it works a little better, but wouldn’t be surprised if I forgot it existed by the time a sequel comes out.