A Zoom with a View by Jess Cannon
Publication Date: May 5, 2026
Summary from NetGalley:
A cozy murder mystery filled with hometown drama, social media influencers, an over-the-top mother, and two very attractive local men, A Zoom with a View will make you want to move to Blue Oak—if only the Fourth of July festivities didn’t end with a dead body.
Leo can’t believe she’s back in Blue Oak. Her small, quirky Texas hometown feels suffocating after trying to make it big as an English professor in New York—especially due to her strained relationship with her overly hair-sprayed mother, Karina. But with Leo’s career in academia in shambles, at least she’s able to work as a photographer for her godmother’s real estate business. And her best friend, Emily, is around to help her navigate through the mess—and maybe force her to reconnect with her old high school boyfriend, Mack.
But while at work, Leo makes a grisly discovery at one of her godmother’s properties: the dead body of rival real estate agent and social media influencer Chaz. Even worse, Leo and Emily have been secretly running a snarky Reddit page making fun of Chaz’s cringe-inducing advice and duck-faced selfies. When someone she loves is accused of the murder, Leo finds herself flung headfirst into a dangerous investigation, teaming up with a local detective who is a lot more attractive than she remembered when they were both teenagers. Meanwhile, Karina has been acting stranger and stranger, as if all her hair hides a big secret. . . .
A bold and hilarious introduction to a new sleuth who is looking to get her life back on track, but finds a man with his skull bashed in instead.
ARC provided by Dutton Publishing via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This was a fun and fast paced cozy mystery that I enjoyed reading. That said, I did have a few issues with it. Nothing that totally took away from the story, but were problematic for me. But I still enjoyed it enough that I would pick up the next in the series, or any other books that this author writes.
Leo is a great character and she makes a great detective. I enjoyed the chapters from her point of view. She is smart and loves to do research. She is also a bit of an introvert which can hold her back. I loved her relationship with her childhood friend, Emily. They had a great dynamic that I look forward to seeing more of in the next book.
As much as I enjoyed the other characters in the story, there were too many perspectives on what was going on. The narrative jumped around a bit to much from character to character and at times it was hard to know who was telling that part of the story. This was especially true towards the middle of the book as a couple of new characters were added. Fewer perspectives would have worked better for this story.
There were also a couple of subplots that didn’t quite work for me and took away from the main mystery. The estrangement between Leo and her mom felt forced and didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. The romance story lines also didn’t add anything to the story and there are some awkward scenes towards the end that just didn’t make sense.
There was a lot that did work for me though. I loved the snarky comments on the subreddit about Chaz and Kymber. That whole story line was brilliant and it brought up some issues about influencers that were interesting. The small town feel to the book was good and I loved the quirky residents of Blue Oak.
Overall, this was a solid start to a fun cozy fantasy. I certainly hope that there will be a second book as I look forward to seeing what these characters get up to next.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 