The Body on the Barstool

Top Shelf #1

by Lolli Powell

2016 WISHING SHELF INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARDS BRONZE WINNER!
New Yorker Erica "Ricki" Fontaine's n'er-do-well uncle has dropped dead and left her a dive bar in a small Ohio River town. With a lousy apartment, less-than-promising job prospects, and even worse romantic ones, the inheritance comes at just the right time. Ricki packs up her cat and heads for the Buckeye State.
Now she's trying to change the Top Shelf from a bar known for its Friday night fights into the kind of drinking establishment where you can bring your granny. Finding her ex-husband dead on a barstool at opening time one morning just might put a kink in those plans.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cats, Cozy

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2016

About the author

I'm retired from the nine-to-five life and live with my husband and two cats on private land inside Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. (The handsome dog with me in the picture went to the Great Dog Park in the Sky March 1, and we miss him a lot!)

I have loved fiction since before I could read (Mom said I made up stories based on the pictures in books). Now that I no longer have the excuse of not enough time, I'm fulfilling my lifelong dream of writing novels.

Over the years, I've paid the bills by being a dancer, a bartender, a police officer, a registered nurse and a technical writer. Now I'm drawing on that life experience and my two English degrees to create stories I enjoy writing and hope readers will enjoy reading.

My Top Shelf cozy mystery series is set in a small fictitious town on the Ohio River halfway between Indiana and the West Virginia border. There are currently six books in the series: The Body on the Barstool, Whiskey Kills, Name Your Poison, Double Shot, Bottoms Up, and On the Rocks. The Top Shelf series features Ricki Fontaine, a New Yorker who moves to small-town Ohio after inheriting a dive bar from her black sheep uncle.

I have two books, The Ghost Wears A Badge and Dead Men Don't Retire, in my Spirit of the Law cozy series. Dead End, the third book in the series, should be out late 2025.

I've also published a contemporary romance, The Boy Next Door, and a standalone romantic suspense novel, The Wrong Kind of Man. I have two books, Death Notice and Undercover in my Kisses and Killers Thriller series. My novella, The Gift, is a holiday romance with a hint of the paranormal.

I also write grittier mysteries and thrillers under the name Laurel Heidtman.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: Solid 4 stars of five

I knew this series was for me when I read that the author lived with three or four dogs. I feel a little betrayed that the c-a-t in these books is presented in a favorable light, but one can't have everything. I'm not quite sure why that should be, but there it is.

When Ricki returns to (fictional) Waterton, Ohio, after a stint there as a child in the middle 1990s, she does so as a woman of property, a caryatid of the community, her late uncle's heiress and new owner of a dive bar called The Top Shelf. It's run-down, it's crappy, the police know it by heart, but it's all hers. She's thrilled because her life in New York City was stale as hell. Her college romance drifted into marriage that, sadly, proved not to be right for either of them...her ex-husband Michael remarried after the divorce, tastelessly quickly, to his secretary the Hot Scot. Adam the Hot Scot. So yeah, not really right for the first spouse.

After she landed up in Waterton, Michael and Ricki stayed friends and even continued to talk. So it was a huge surprise to Ricki when Michael shows up unannounced at the Top Shelf. Especially since he's dead. Inside her closed and locked bar. With one of her food service steak knives in his side.

Don't you hate when that happens?

Lolli Powell's rollicking ride to resolving this mystery, and the even deeper and scarier mystery at the heart of the murder, is full of surprises and chuckles and relatable moments, just like you want a cozy to be:

I enjoy a good horse race from time to time, but team sports make me yawn. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm about as coordinated as a legless pig and was psychologically traumatized by always being picked last for teams in gym class.

Also present are the requisite cast of oddballs and eccentrics one requires to be cozy and the employed good-looking heterosexual single men (ha! as if) in this one-stoplight town required for it to be chick lit.

There are a few inevitable holes in the quilt. The characters are numerous so some have little screen time. The red herrings piled up a bit high, though the fishy smell was never quite overwhelming. There's a timely Act of God that did cause my eyes to roll just a widge. The aforementioned Limb of Satan is not dead by the end of the book or there'd be fractionally more stars here. But none of these minor infelicities are remotely big enough to be deal-breakers.

We know the tropes are present. This is good. We know the murder has layers, we know the herrings are red and copious, we know the setting is exotic. (Ohio? There are people there?) We know, in short, all the elements of a satisfying read are present. And having just read the book, I vouch for the satisfactions of the read. I appreciate the chance to look at the world from a front porch once in a while. That's the secret of cozies, they afford a sense of community and connection not always readily available in the real world. Mysteries in general offer a reinforcement of the frequently absent sense that Justice will prevail.

Doesn't sound like your cuppa? Pass on. The world will keep spinning. But I say take a side trip and visit the Top Shelf for a refreshing Jim Beam and soda.

[Nicole Young]

DNF @ 22%

POV: Singular, First Person
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Part of an interconnected series: Yes
First in interconnected series: Yes
Safe or Dark: Safe

I snagged this for free on Kindle.

I made it to chapter 12 before throwing in the towel. I just couldn’t get into the story. All the characters just seemed one-dimensional and boring. Ricki was supposed to be a strong, badass, bar-owning woman, but she had the most vanilla vocabulary ever. I loved her confidence, though. According to her, she was a “cold-hearted WITCH”. Don't get me wrong, I don't need to have swear words in a book in order to enjoy it but you would think Ricki would have a more colorful vocabulary than she did in order for the author to sell the character.

She tried to come off as sassy, humorous, and stubborn, but was more condescending and rude. What the author thought was fun, witty, and flirty banter was actually just Ricki being a bitch, oh, excuse me, I mean a witch. God, she was so unlikeable. I also can't forget to mention that her inner monologue was so repetitive it was DULL.

Side note: Once Ricki described one of the detective's eyebrows as being "lickable," I was done with her. Any possibility of me taking her seriously flew out the window at that moment.

I certainly didn't find her appealing enough to believe that two men were interested in dating her. That's for sure.

A lot of people seemed to really enjoy this story. So I’m thinking that when it comes to this book, it’s an “it’s not you, it’s me” situation.

[R.M. Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Body on the Barstool (A Top Shelf Mystery) by Lolli Powell
What an intriguing story about love, loss and murder. What starts off as a simple murder –a body found on a bar stool in Erica Fountain's tavern –turns into healing the past, present and future for everyone involved.
This story swept me in from page one and kept me guessing to the end, which is saying a lot, for I am the type of person who can usually figure out the ending before it happens. Not this time which was quite delightful.
Highly recommended, this cozy mystery is well constructed and the written words flow flawlessly throughout the entire novel.
Well done Lolli Powell!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great new start for a new series. Erica, aka Ricki, inherits a dive bar from her uncle . In need of a change she leaves New York City and moves into the small apartment above the Top Shelf. She is beginning to change the image of the bar until she opens up one morning to find her ex-husband dead on a bar stool. Since the police are well acquainted with the bar and it's owner, she becomes the prime suspect. She and a few of her new friends, including her ex's boyfriend help solve the murder that is tied to a 1070's robbery. A good mystery that is told in a fun way with lots of great characters available for the next book. I've never read Lolli Powell before but I hope she continues with this series.

[Lucia Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Body on the Barstool" is one of the books up for review for the 2018 Mystery Thriller Week.

It's a cozy mystery, and was a fun, engaging read. It moved along nicely, and I had a hard time putting it aside. The plot had plenty of twists and kept me guessing. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next one!

[Patricia Gligor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend "The Body on the Barstool" by Lolli Powell. The book had all the elements of a good mystery but what I liked best was the main character's fantastic sense of humor, which made me laugh out loud several times as I tried to figure out the identity of the killer.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I selected to read for #MTW2018. The cover hinted cozy and promised humor and the book lived up to that promise, delivering a snarky, self-assured, tough-as-nails heroine who is endeavoring to turn her legacy, a dive bar, into a high-end haven. And then she finds a body and finds herself immersed in gambling and an old armored car heist, surrounded by gorgeous men. Can I tell you more? Probably not without spoilers but suffice it to say that Mystery Thriller Week produced a real winner for me!

[H.M. Gooden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly cozy murder mystery for a cold winters day

I was instantly drawn into the world of the main character- divorced, new proprietor of a bar her eccentric uncle left to her. But when a dead man shows up on a barstool and turns out to be her dead ex-husband, her life gets a whole lot more complicated. With twists at every turn, this book was easy to sink into like a good cup of coffee and Baileys. Will definitely check out more from this author!

[C.A. King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow talk about bad luck - This poor gal moves back to Waterton to run a bar only to open one day to find her gay ex husband dead on a bar stool. That makes her a prime suspect or it could be her cat :).

This cozy mystery kept me guessing as to who done it right to the end and really that's what a good murder book is all about!

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting & entertaining story. Uncle Lymon has died & left his bar to his niece who moves from NY to take over the business.

[Bruce Perrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Solid Mystery with Great Laughs

The Body on the Barstool is a cozy mystery about Ricki Fontaine’s discovery of her dead ex-husband one morning in her bar and her efforts to find the killer.

Writers of cozy mysteries forego two of the primary marketing draws of many books – sex and violence – putting more pressure on…well, everything else. The Body on the Barstool delivers on all these fronts.

The pacing and suspense are good, as Ricki moves from suspect to suspect, never really letting the reader settle on anyone. As I tried to out-guess the author, I found myself suspecting just about everyone before the truth came out. Development of the setting is excellent. I felt like I could draw a map of small-town Ohio where the story was set. Character development was also strong. As the story is first person, all the quirks and idiosyncrasies of Ricki, in particular, come to life. And she has a few.

But the aspect of this story that really sold me was the humor. Sense of humor is idiosyncratic, but the author hit mine perfectly – Ricki’s sardonic view of herself, her friends, and her world kept me laughing until the very end. If you can read how Ricki felt about crying in public or her description of the police detective investigating the case and not at least smile, you’re a tougher audience than I am.

So, if you are a fan of cozy mysteries, and especially if you like characters with a somewhat sarcastic view of life, you’ll enjoy The Body on the Barstool. I know I did.

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

“You think business was bad, wait ‘til they hear about the dead guy on the barstool.”

Ricki just inherited a bar and finds a dead dude, who was her ex-husband, which leads her to be suspect #1. She talks an awful lot—like talking out of her a#$ mostly, and the story kinda repeats the same info on what happened. She was witty and snarky, but also tiring at the same time. God, I feel like nothing really happens in this story. What a dull read.

[Chariss Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great start to a series and the main character, Ricki, is sassy and in her head a lot as the story shares her insights, sarcasm, and general opinion about everything. I found it funny and entertaining which makes me want to read more by Lolli Powell. I recommend this book to mystery lovers.

[Alita · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good bedtime read and well-developed plot line, even though perhaps too many similar characters. I enjoyed the interesting yet flawed ‘heroine’, Erica (Rikki) to a point. The tornado was handled well and the end made it sound appealing to continue with the series. Too many books to read first for me though.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dialogue far to vanilla for a bar owner to have. Supporting characters very flimsy and needed fleshing out. Leave this one one the shelf.

[Wanda Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect when I began reading this novel. Ricki Fontaine, a true New Yorker, inherits a bar in the Midwest (Waterton, Ohio) after her uncle dies and leaves it to her in his will. She'd decently been divorced by a man who'd left her for another man, so, it seems, she figured, what the heck, I'll go manage this bar and see what happens.

She feels like she doesn't quite fit in when she changes some things on the menu--craft beer instead of the old cheap stuff, for example--but she retains much of the old staff, including Victor, the cook, and Ginny the waitress.

Written in first person, this novel gets right down to the nitty-gritty of Ricki's thoughts. She's snarky and witty, revealing her true New York City self. She lives in an apartment over the bar with her cat, Jasper. One day, she goes downstairs to open the place (Ricki's Top Shelf), only to discover that her ex-husband, who's now married to a man, is dead, stabbed to death with one of the knives that belongs to the bar. Readers hear her many internal questions as she calls 9-1-1, and as she has her first encounter with two Waterton detectives, one of whom she finds very attractive, the other she finds useless. She gives them each a nickname; conversely, one of them leaves looking at her as a suspect, the other knowing she's not a suspect at all.

The owner of the local newspaper jumps into the scene. He wants a scoop. He starts snooping around, asking strange questions about her late uncle. Her late ex-husband's husband from New York City comes to Waterton to be questioned about the murder. He's an attractive gay man who fits right into the bar scene and helps Ricki and her employees as they do their day-to-day business. Business booms as the locals want to visit the bar where the murder took place.

The plot takes many more turns, and I don't want to reveal where the novel goes. Suffice it to say that many surprises jump out as I read it, and the sarcastic remarks from Ricki's internal monologues enhance every incident. She continues flirting not only with one detective, Gabriel Russell (whom she's nicknamed "Eyebrows," based on his sexy eyebrows), but also with the owner of the newspaper, Logan Russell. Tension arises between the two of them throughout the novel, not only over Ricki, but over several other things that occur.

I'm not usually a big mystery fan; however, I immediately loved Ricki the character and her sarcastic wit, her inner monologues about what was happening around her, her ability to handle people and guess (not always successfully) what would happen next. She's a fighter, a survivor, a bold, intense woman, but someone with a sense of humor when things don't go her way. Whether confronting New York City mobsters, running out of liquor in the bar, dealing with conspiracy theories, or sorting out matters of the heart, Ricki's got it under control. She may not believe it all the time, but she's got it.

This is a fun, unpredictable book, and I simply love this writer's style. Go, Ricki, go!

[Mike Billington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agatha Christie probably did more than any other writer to popularize murder in small-town settings. Her series of stories featuring Miss Jane Marple are really the gold standard when it comes to this particular branch of fictional mysteries.
That said, there have been a number of authors since Dame Agatha's heyday that have managed to capture the essence of murder writ small; writers who have been able to give their readers a real sense of the rhythm of life in villages and towns where crime is not an everyday occurrence and police departments are not equipped with all the latest forensic tools that New York or London detectives can draw upon.
It's my opinion that Lolli Powell is a member in good standing of that sorority of writers who have picked up the Christie mantle. As proof of that claim, I offer her mystery "The Body on the Barstool" as Exhibit "A." In it, Powell introduces us to Ricki Fontaine, a transplanted New Yorker who is running a bar in Waterton,Ohio; a town whose entire population would fit in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium. Ricki is one of my favorite kinds of protagonists - a regular person. She's not a super-sleuth, not a Playboy model, nor is she a kung-fu master, or a crack shot with a handgun. Instead, she's a hard-working normal human being. She's smart, she's loyal, and she gets tired after a long day on the job. She's divorced and wonders if she's going to meet someone she can fall in love with, but she's not some starry-eyed teenager who spends her days and nights wishing she had a boyfriend.
More importantly, she's a woman who does what most regular people do when they are confronted by awful circumstances - she soldiers on. That makes her very easy to relate to as a character.
"The Body on the Bar Stool" also features some very interesting secondary characters and I give Powell credit for taking the time and effort to make them three dimensional rather than simply creating cardboard cutouts whose only purpose is to hang around so the protagonist can bounce quotes off them. There's a hunky police detective, the editor of the small town's paper, a waitress with a secret, a cook who makes damn good vegetable soup, and a few others who help to bring the community of Waterton, Ohio alive.
Powell's narrative style is very smooth; pages flow easily from chapter to chapter in a natural rhythm making this a quick read despite the fact it's a little longer than many other novels in this genre. That's a tribute to Powell's writing and her ability to craft the story. The plot is well thought out and believable. I won't say much about the plot because it's not my intention to spoil the experience for those that haven't yet read this very entertaining mystery. I will say, however, that at its root is a complex mystery with some nice twists and turns and more than a few red herrings.
The verdict: A really excellent read by a writer who really knows how to tell a story.

[Mary Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Body On The Barstool
A Top Shelf Mystery
Lolli Powell
5 Stars

Synopsis:

New Yorker Erica "Ricki" Fontaine's n'er-do-well uncle has dropped dead and left her a dive bar in a small Ohio River town. With a lousy apartment, less-than-promising job prospects, and even worse romantic ones, the inheritance comes at just the right time. Ricki packs up her cat and heads for the Buckeye State.

Now she's trying to change the Top Shelf from a bar known for its Friday night fights into the kind of drinking establishment where you can bring your granny. But finding her ex-husband dead on a barstool at opening time one morning just might put a kink in those plans. (Goodreads)

Review:

Ricki is a smart hardworking woman who is really trying to improve the bar that was left to her by her uncle. Not an easy thing to do when the bar is a dive bar. But she is working hard at improving the image and the clientele. And she seems to be doing a good job of it until she finds the dead body of her ex-husband on one of her bar stools. In order to save the bar, and keep herself out of jail, she needs to figure out who killed her ex and why.

The characters are well developed and well rounded. I really liked Ricki and her sarcastic sense of humor. I was laughing throughout much of the book. She became very human to me, with her reluctance to cry in public and many of the thoughts that she had. Ricki is someone that I would like to be friends with. The secondary characters added a lot to the story and I thought they were realistic too.

The writing style flows smoothly and the book is a quick easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and through most of the book, I felt like I was right there, watching all of the action taking place. I really liked the small town setting in Ohio (which is where I live), it felt very realistic to me.

The mystery was carried on well throughout the entire book. There were enough twists and turns and red herrings thrown in to make this an almost impossible mystery to solve. The action was fast paced and I found myself staying up at night to keep reading when I should have already been asleep. There was tension and suspense until the very end, which I loved.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. With great characters and setting and a top notch mystery, what is not to like? I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

[Kat Lebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Body on the Barstool, A top Shelf Mystery, Book 1
by Lolli Powell

Well, once again Goodreads marked the book I was reading "read" before I actually finished it, although they did get the right day. Either tech has gotten too invasive or Goodreads has a problem it needs to fix. Maybe both.

Okay -- so I loved this book. So many of the books I've picked up on the free/low cost lists have main characters that are not relatable or even likeable. Not so with Ricki. She's funny and snarky, without seeming cold and bitchy. The author paints a picture of a woman most of us would love to have as a best friend. Other characters are well written, as well, and the reader can like, love, or hate them on the basis of those characterizations. The plotting and pacing is well done (I did find one 'maybe' proofing error -- but as it could be the author intended to use the word rather than the one I would have been expecting, I didn't mark off for it. Lots of action and suspense, some real danger to the characters, and a nice study in people not always being what they might seem. And the use of a tornado (living in a state adjacent to Ricki's Ohio and directly in the tornado alley) made this a perfect anthropomorphic character to enter in the final climactic action scene. No cliffhanger ending, although it sure does open the door to more adventures to come.

I hope there are many more adventures at The Top Shelf. It is rare one runs into a series that makes you want to run out and buy as many books in the series as you can find.

[Billy Buttons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was entered in The 2016 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:

Title: The Body on the Barstool (A Top Shelf Mystery)
Author: Lolli Powell
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 21
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Of the 21 readers:
21 would read another book by this author.
21 thought the cover was good or excellent.
21 felt it was easy to follow.
21 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
15 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
6 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
20 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
21 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.

Readers’ Comments
‘Such a fun writer. I loved it.’ Female reader, aged 32
‘I liked the mystery element, but it was the bar setting I enjoyed the most. Excellent cover.’ Male reader, aged 28
‘Ricki is a wonderful character. What a lovely, cosy mystery this is. Unpredictable and thoroughly entertaining.’ Male reader, aged 64
‘Pacing is excellent with tons of twists. I loved every word of it. The sort of book you can curl up with.’ Female reader, aged 45
‘A gentle mystery is the best way to describe this. Very well structured too. This author is a very good planner.’ Male reader, aged 74

‘A wonderfully inventive mystery. A Bronze Medal Winner and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricki Fontaine has upped sticks and moved from the hubbub of New York to a small town in Ohio to run The Top Shelf, a bar left to her by her uncle. The Shelf doesn't exactly have the best reputation, or attract desirable clientele, by Ricki is trying to turn that all around, and it looks like she may be gaining some ground.....until a body turns up on one of her bar stools.
It certainly wasn't there when she locked up for the night, (surely she would have noticed?) and with no signs of a forced entry it's a mystery as to how this guy managed to a knife in his side, presumably whilst Ricki slept upstairs. However, the mystery of who he is is shortlived, as it just happens to be Rikki's ex-husband.
I don't want to give too much of the plot away, as I want people to read it for themselves. What I can say is that Lolli Powell has created a brilliant character in the form of Rikki Fontaine. Her voice contains humour in the direst of situations and it's guaranteed to make you smile. The patrons of the Top Shelf are also an engaging bunch and it makes me want to read more about them and the small town they live in. If Lolli was so inclined I can see this series really taking off, with the development of this community that's being created and Rikki's indomitable good humour reigning throughout as she regales the reader of her antics with cutting sarcasm and dry wit. I love this character!
Now I'm straight onto the next one. I want to see what happens to Rikki next!

[Allyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun and intriguing read! Lolli Powell writes a witty, suspenseful and colorful mystery that kept me guessing to the end. I love the wit of the main character, Ricki and the many colorful characters that people Waterton. I am always amazed by every Lolli Powell book at how she gives such full lives to everyone in short, well descriptive paragraphs. She makes me connect and get involved with the story, the flow leading me to keep turning pages.
The Body On The Bar Stool is a fun mystery about Ricki from New York city who inherits her uncles bar in small town Waterton. She sets to the task of remaking the Top Shelf's run down dive image into a classier pub, hoping to make the best of what she inherited.
Finding a body on her barstool puts a wrench in those plans and she soon finds herself stumbling into more clues than the police have to solve the murder.
Ricki is sassy, witty and a woman I instantly wanted to be friends with. I love her internal dialogue and the witty quips along the way.
The ending of the book was a surprise and a pleasant one. Everything was wrapped up logically and neatly and I never saw it coming. For a murder mystery, I was actually left with a warm feeling once the murder was resolved and Ricki made peace with the fallout.
I would recommend the book and the author, well done!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, didn't see that coming

Well, I admit that as the story progresses, I kept thinking I was catching on but I was wrong. I didn't expect where this went and the fact that Michael's murder was avoidable.

Ricki inherits her uncle's bar which includes an apartment to live in and the trouble any older building comes with. After investing in some improvements to change her clientele to more upscale patrons, a murder, of her ex-husband no less, means dealing with the police, reporters, nosy customers and possibly the murderer too. When her ex's current spouse arrives with his own issue, and the local reporter shares a secret her uncle never told her about, Ricki finds herself trying to piece together how all of them fit into one picture. Or do they?

It was interesting to see all of the different dramas and the folks involved, and think you see link's but are not quite there. At least I wasn't.

[Jeannie and Louis Rigod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bar owner, Erica Fontaine is busy trying to rehab her inherited bar in Waterton, Ohio. Formerly, Erica's Uncle Lymon owned the seedy bar, however, under new management the bar was beginning to lure a better class of customer.

In fact almost all the fighting had ceased until that fateful morning when a dead body is found on one of the barstools. Yikes, this is going to put the 'Top Shelf' back in reputation. It doesn't help that the body is of Erica's past either.

Now, with the aid of a gorgeous homicide detective, the spouse of her Ex, the new owner of the local newspaper, and various bar patrons, the mystery will be solved. Of course there is Cleveland...

This debut novel truly surprised me. The characters are well developed, the dialog was snappy, and the crimes were amazing. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again I read the second in the series before the first. At least I can honestly say that either can be read as stand alone! Of course it is always wise to read any series in order since you will understand more fully what is happening with the recurring characters. Ricki left her hum drum life in New York when her uncle died and left her a bar in a small town. When he ran the bar it was notorious--she was turning it around and wasn't doing too badly. Then she found her ex-husband dead on one of the bar stools--The doors had been been locked--so how had he gotten in--and who killed him? And would it hurt her business? Much more happens--and lots of action and some laughs along with some twists and turns. You will have to read this book this find out!

[Roy Murry · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BODY ON THE BARSTOOL
A Top Shelf Mystery

LOLLI POWELL

Review by Author Roy Murry

This cozy mystery has all the bells and whistles of a good mystery. The characters are fun and loveable, including Jasper the cat.

Ricki returns to her hometown to take over an inherited bar, Top Shelf. A week into her management, a dead body is on a barstool.

She is suspect because of her relationship with the corpse. Here, the fun begins with twists and turns the reader will not see coming.

When the storm settles at the end, Ricki may return to New York or stay with a new Top Shelf mystery. Barstool is an excellent lead into a series.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ricki got her Uncles bar called the Shelf. One day when she opened the bar she seen a man at the end of the bar with his head on the table. She gets closer and realizes its her X-husband Michael. How did he get in everything was locked up. Who killed him - she said she didnt tho the cops looked at her as a suspect. Mostly because her X -turned out to be gay and had married a man. but she was okay with it. Micheal husband Adam went back to where Michael used to live to find the murderer. Then you get to the root of the story more about the why he was murdered. A debt owed , jealousy , lots of money to gain or something unknown to alot of towns people.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I did enjoy the book. There were a few scenes that didn't hit quite well, such as the first meeting of Gabe and Rikki. Her reaction to him and the way he looked was a bit much. I'm also ready for a cozy mystery love interest to NOT be a detective. The characters were fun and relatable. The mystery kept churning for the entire story and the finale was a bit of a surprise. The natural disaster was unexpected but will solve a few future problems in the series. I thought the plot was pretty creative and kept my interest well. I will continue with book 2.

[Joshua Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lolli Powell creates a really fun mystery in The Body on the Barstool! After her uncle’s death, Ricki inherits the Top Shelf, a gritty bar. She does her best to change its reputation, until one day she finds her ex-husband dead in it. This book is a lot of fun, especially from all the voice and life Powell pours into her characters! Check this one out if you’re looking for a more lighthearted mystery with likable characters!

[Lisa Pikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who killed the Ex husband and why?

As Rikki is getting the hang of running her inherited bar, she is getting more attention than she wants in the form of dead ex and cops!! Who would have thought that this story would have all the elements of such a great read? I love the fun, flirty, frustrating good time this story has to offer and now I shall read the next one, then the next...