POMONA AFTON CAN SO SOLVE A MURDER by Bellamy Rose is a charming rom-com cozy mystery that takes a privileged hotel heiress, strips her of all her possessions and credit cards, and throws her into the real world, where she must solve her grandmother’s murder.
Pomona Afton lives in a penthouse in her family’s Upper East Side hotel. She has unlimited funds, limited life skills, and no idea how to survive in the real world. When she discovers her grandmother's brutal murder, Pomona becomes a suspect and, along with the rest of the family, is cut off from the will and her trust until the murder is solved. Pomona's grandmother wasn’t well-liked—she had many enemies, including disinherited relatives, disgruntled workers, and blackmailers. Kicked out of her penthouse, and with nowhere else to turn, Pomona moves in with Gabe, her former nanny’s son. Gabe helps her get a job at the coffee shop he manages, and together they decide that solving the murder is their best chance. Pomona hopes to regain her life, while Gabe wants to restore his mom’s retirement benefits. Can they put aside their differences and work together to catch the ruthless killer who ended the life of the matriarch of the Afton hotel empire?
POMONA AFTON CAN SO SOLVE A MURDER is a quirky, fish-out-of-water cozy mystery. Pomona’s voice is fun and slightly oblivious as she learns her carefully crafted world is falling apart. But she’s determined and jumps headfirst into solving the mystery. Gabe makes a perfect romantic interest—he resents Pomona’s upbringing but gradually realizes he likes her as a person. The mystery itself is solid, with several suspects, including close family members. The dialogue is witty, balancing serious moments with funny remarks. POMONA AFTON CAN SO SOLVE A MURDER is a delightful rom-com cozy mystery, full of twists, suspicious family members, questionable surveillance footage, and a fresh start for Pomona.
A spoiled heiress must investigate her grandmother’s death in order to gain back her trust fund, all while discovering how to be her own person and maybe even in falling in love in this rom-com meets murder mystery.
When Pomona Afton, Upper East Side hotel heiress, stumbles out of a gala and upon the scene of her grandmother’s murder, her first thought is that the society queen won’t be missed for her kind, cookie-baking ways. In fact, she was mean, greedy, and paranoid—so paranoid that she secretly slipped a clause into her will mandating that, should she die an unnatural death, all the family assets get frozen. And if the “unnatural death” isn’t explained? Those accounts stay frozen.
Practically overnight, Pomona is locked out of her penthouse with no other option than to move in with a roommate: Gabe, the irritable (yet handsome) son of her former nanny. Not only is his apartment cramped, but it doesn’t even have a doorman. Or a chef! Pom needs someone to solve this murder, like, yesterday, so she can get her trust fund back.
And Gabe? He needs this murder solved because that’s the only way his mother, who toiled for the Afton family for years, will ever get the retirement money she deserves. As Pom’s family clams up, blocking the police at every turn, Pom quickly realizes that if she wants her glamorous life back, she’s going to have to put on her big-girl Manolos and do it herself…with the help of Gabe, who she’s falling for more and more by the day.
Can Pomona Afton (who previously couldn’t solve a crossword in the bath on a hungover Sunday) actually solve this murder? And if she does return to her former life of luxury, will it be worth the possibility of losing Gabe?