Board to Death by C.J. Connor

Ben Rosencrantz used to be an English professor (yes, he's heard all of the Shakespeare jokes) but he came back to Sugar House, a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, to help his father run their family's board game shop. His father is ill and can use the help but their shop has been in a slow decline for years as Amazon has taken over. Newly divorced, Ben is just in a constant state of nervousness because nothing has gone the way it should have and now he's back, still gay, in the heart of Mormon country. 

It really doesn't help that a patron shows up on his doorstep, with a knife sticking out of his chest, and promptly dies. The man had claimed to have the prototype for Monopoly which, if true, would have been worth quite a lot of money. Ben thinks that he may be a suspect in the murder so he decides to investigate on his own.

This was an okay start to a series. I don't love amateur sleuths who run into danger but Ben at least took someone along with him. There wasn't a lot of build up for the mystery other than Ben running around. The narrator also had some weird pauses that kept throwing me off but I did finish the book and I'd probably read the next one. 

A Board Game Shop Mystery #1

Three stars

This book came out August 22, 2023

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own