Ashton Corners Book Club Books In Order

Publication Order of An Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery Books

The Ashton Corners Book Club series is a popular novel series written by one of the highly renowned Canadian authors named Erika Chase. This series is based on the mystery, thriller, and suspense genres and is comprised of a total of 5 books. All the books were released between the years 2012 and 2015. Author Chase has introduced the central characters in all the mystery books, as Lizzie Turner and Molly Matthews. The books are set in Ashton Corners, Alabama, The United States. A number of other interesting characters are introduced by author Chase as the series progresses further. Each and every story depicted in the series is set around the Cheese Straws Society and the Mystery Readers Association of Ashton Corners.

The debut book of the Ashton Corners Bookclub mystery series written by author Erika Chase was released under the title of ‘A Killer Read’. The story of this book shows that 6 friends come together in the ancient Southern mansion of Molly Matthews for commencing the first meeting of the association of Mystery Readers as well as the Society of Cheese Straws. One among the friends is Lizzie Turner, who is described as a reading specialist having a penchant for the mystery stories. The meeting of the mystery book club members becomes an actual murder scene when a stranger gets shot. However, no one seems to have the idea as to who is the victim or how the antique gun of Molly Matthews was used to commit the murder. Later, Lizzie Turner comes across several manuscript chapters mysteriously in her mailbox and this continues to happen repeatedly. And as Lizzie and the other members of the club try to decode the mystery, they come to know that Molly Matthew’s name is the next one on the list of the killer. No one expected that the first meeting of the club would turn out like this and they find the dead body of a man in his car. What turns out to be even more shocking is that Molly Matthews becomes the prime as the weapon used to commit the murder belonged to her. And when Lizzie Turner senses that things are going way out hand, she joins her fellow club members and takes to sleuthing to find out the real culprit behind the murder. As Lizze begins the sleuthing, she learns that the new chief of police is none other than her old unrequited flame from high school named Mark Dreyfus. Under his guidance, Lizzie feels that she would receive great help in catching the killer. Another thing that bothers her other than Molly Matthews getting wrongly framed for the murder is the serving of the cheese straws in the club meeting and wonders whether it will be served in the future meetings as well. In her attempt to track down the killer, Lizzie Turner appears to be very unrelenting. She even goes to the extent of putting her own life in danger and does not seem to care about facing the murderer of even the police chief Mark Dreyfus. The tremendous success of the book helped it to get nominated for the Agatha Award in the year 2012 in the category of the Best First Book.

The second book of the mystery series written by Erika Chase was published under the name of ‘Read and Buried’. This book too was released by Berkley in 2012. The important characters included in this book by author Chase are Lizzie Turner, Mark Dreyfus, and Derek Alton. The overall summary of the book shows that members of Society and Club of the Book Readers of Ashton Corners look to host an award winning novelist, which does not seem to be an easy task for them. But, when things take a different turn and the novelist gets killed in Lizzie’s house, she gets a homicide case to work on during the holiday. At the start of the book, it is shown that Lizzie Turner and her club friends are planning to host a grand event and invite a guest author for the first time. The idea seems to be an interesting one to all of them and due to this, they start putting all their focus to the Southern hospitality. However, for Lizzie Turner, the guest novelist named Derek Alton appears to be nothing but a huge trouble. He seems to have a lot of ego and also tends to make swarm moves. Later, Derek is discovered dead in the living room of Lizzie Turner’s house. It seems very clear that someone has decided to teach a lesson to the womanizing author by killing him. The suspicion of the murder of Derek Alton falls on one of the close friends of Lizzie Turner. She knows it very well that her friend is not the one who actually killed Derek. Therefore, she begins to work along with her fellow members of the club to investigate the matter and find out who the real killer is.

During their sleuthing activities, the women come across many shocking revelations. One of the most shocking ones among them is when they learn that Derek was not at all like what he pretended himself to be. If Lizzie Turner wishes to crack this case, she will have to face opposition from her boyfriend Mark Dreyfus, the police chief. Mark believes the women club members are not efficient or strong enough to work on such a dangerous case. He also fears that Lizzie might put herself in danger if the killer becomes aware that she is coming after him. But, Lizzie remains adamant in trying to reveal the nasty secrets worthy of a novel. While studying the final, unfinished manuscript of Derek Alton, Lizzie realizes that he was working on something scandalous. But, she does not realize the fact that someone is keeping a watch on all her activities, who would not think twice before putting an end to her sleuthing activities for his own good. This book went on to become see a great success similar to that of the first book. The readers liked the way author Chase has depicted Lizzie’ attempts to solve mysteries and murders around her with procedural diligence. Although, a naivete of an amateur can be clearly seen in her methods. Lizzie goes on to confront people directly, which often lands her in danger. But, this only adds to the charm of the book series. And the charm helped the book to succeed. The book was included in the top charts of a few magazines. It also came to the notice of some of the prominent critics, who praised it as well as the efforts of author Chase very much.