Journaled to Death

Divorcée Mandy Meadows, the narrator of this good-natured series launch from Redmond (Grave Expectations), makes ends meet by working at the coffee bar of the University of Seattle Hospital, producing how-to vlogs with the help of her teenage daughter, Vellum, and renting out her basement to her amiable if trouble-prone cousin, Ryan, a maintenance worker at the hospital. One evening, their recording of a vlog on journaling is interrupted by mysterious sounds coming from the basement. Mandy investigates and finds Ryan lying dead at the bottom of the stairs, smelling of alcohol. Good-looking Det. Justin Ahola arrives and quickly ascertains that Ryan has been murdered. As Mandy digs deeper into Ryan’s professional and private life, she realizes that she didn’t know her cousin as well as she thought she did. The plot meanders along, buoyed by a steady stream of musings on nasty neighbors, her overbearing former mother-in-law, her lousy ex-husband, Ahola’s attractiveness, and the trials of child rearing, plus tips on journaling and vlogging. This is an easy-going, undemanding cozy. Agent: Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary. (Feb.)