Maggie Needs An Alibi (Maggie Kelly Mystery Book 1) (2024)

I got sucked in, even though this is a mediocre novel with foul language, in which the author tries way too hard to be clever, and the characters are annoying. But the premise kept me reading, wanting to know how it would end. Maggie is an author of Regency-era mysteries, and one day the hero of her books, Alexandre Saint Just, and his lovable sidekick come, inexplicably, to life. They just appear in Maggie's apartment.

I know. Weird, right? I had to see how it would end. Because clearly it's a setup for Maggie to fall in love with her perfect man, Only he's not real. Or he is, but how, and for how long? And it turns out he's not perfect after all, and there is a cute, and real, other man in the mix. So how will it resolve? I won't spoil it, but I will say, I had to read the second book, even though I found the first one so unsatisfying. And now I'm going to have to hunt down the third, because apparently the way to stay on the New York Times Bestseller list is to write irritating books that keep stringing people along. I was going to rate it two stars, but upped it to three for the intriguing concept.

Main concencept & plot is intriguing, and parts of the book are fun, but the style gets annoying and the main male character of Saint Just becomes incredibly boring.

It's really more of a bitchy satire on writers/publishing than a cosy mystery.

Most of the characters are obnoxious weight/booze/sex obsessives (guys tends to be jerks and women bitchy/gossipy or 'innocent little mice').

Only really nice characters are Socks and Sterling (and one's possibly sexually exploited, the other deliberately written (by Maggie) to be an bumbling sidekick who thinks characters on tv are real).

Book contains 'jokes' about people being either gay or mistaken for gay and the racist sterotype of black men having big penises. One of the background nice male characters get exploited via theater auditions into performing nude, possibly for the people holding the auditions pleasure, and that's passed off as harmless fodder for jokes about gayness and Saint Just & Sterling misunderstanding the modern world.

The regency hero is a tedious jerk. The idea of a fictional character being forced to interact with the real world can be fun, but it gets boring reading this character constantly talking to people in his pseudo ultra old fashioned and ultra formal style, pretending to be a detective.

Why are so many people willing to talk to him?

Why does only one person (apart from Maggie) accuse them of being actors, and why does nobody else accuse Saint Just & Sterling of being obsessed fans of the books?

The subplot with Maggie's therapist goes nowhere apart from some digs from her fictional character that he thinks therapy is a waste of time, & the actual romance that happens at the end is cheesy.

It's hard to follow what's happening during parts of the book (possibly due to skimming Saint Justs' tedious dialogue)

Apart from a reference to a policeman going through Maggie's "favourite places" on "America Online" most of this story could easy take place pre-internet, everybody seems to communicate via phone or visits/industry parties, nobody seems to send emails, not even publishers.

Oh and how come the 'fictional' characters who talk ultra formally and misunderstand modern things, also somehow mange to grab the concepts of credit cards and video recorders far too quickly?

B- at AAR so 3.5 stars While my paranormal reading waxes and wanes, romantic suspense has been a steady favorite with me. For some reason, though, I kept starting books and setting them aside this month. I finally happened upon Maggie Needs an Alibi, first in a series from Kasey Michaels. I know Michaels’ writing primarily from her historicals, so I was curious to see what she would do with suspense.

As it turns out, this novel is more a comedic mystery with a dash or several of romance, rather than straight-up romantic suspense. Maggie Kelly is a historical romance author turned historical mystery writer, and the story here centers on her Regency-Era detective and his sidekick coming to life. When Maggie created her gorgeous prima donna of a hero, Alexandre Saint Just, she wasn’t planning on sharing a small apartment with him. But suddenly, there he is.

Sharing tight quarters with a larger than life romantic mystery hero is quite…something. Maggie is a thoroughly modern 21st century woman and she has her fair share of habits that most too-perfect heroines would shun, including smoking. She also lives and talks like more than a few work-from-home folks I’ve encountered in real life so I warmed to her early on. At her best, she is human, imperfect and kind of refreshing. And frankly, the opening scene which shows Maggie buried deep in her writing was fabulous. However, she does at times work too hard to keep the wisecracks coming so her dialogue will likely induce the occasional eye roll.

So, where’s the mystery? Well, Maggie has an ex named Kirk who is frankly kind of a jerk. He broke the heart of her editor, also one of Maggie’s best friends, before womanizing his way around New York and finding his way to Maggie – and then doing more womanizing. He is constantly trying to worm his way back into Maggie’s bed, but she isn’t having any of it. This would normally be just an annoyance, but as it happens, Kirk is Maggie’s publisher so she has to deal with him professionally.

This is a partial review. You can find the complete text at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/october-t...

The premise is that a popular author of mysteries with romance, is confronted one day, by the two main characters in her series. Enter, Alexandre Saint Just, or Alex for modern times, and his best friend, Sterling Balder. Both gentlemen are detectives from the Regency period now residing in modern days, Manhattan.

Being a world class amateur sleuth, a natural 'hero', and a world-class lover, Saint Just is having a difficult time adjusting, but nothing to what, Maggie Kelly is experiencing.

To this mixture, Maggie finds herself a suspect in her publishers' death. She cooked the poisoned mushrooms! No worries, Saint Just, and Sterling to the rescue.

This book was written with humor, a complex mystery, and almost too many suspects that are each wacky characters. I did fall for Socks, a character with many attributes.

This is a cozy but has adult language and situations so watch out for the children. I will look for the next novel...Maggie By The Book.

I got this book from PaperbackSwap because I accidentally bought a later book in this series and it looked promising. I just couldn't get into it, the characters, however interesting they were, just didn't feel real to me so I couldn't fall into the story. I think this is a WONDERFUL idea but I just couldn't get into the story.

If it takes 5 days to get to page 25, there is something wrong with the book. This book was horrible! I really did try but I'm only willing to waste so much of my time before moving on to something that will no doubt be better!

3 stars.

Initially this kept reminding me of Hugh Jackman's Kate and Leopold but I did find it entertaining, if a bit all over the place. The denouement was quite predictable but I thought incorporating the NY Central Park horse and carriage was inspired.

I also liked the author wasn't shy about taking the mickey out of the her own implausible plot and her characters, on authors who switch genres (Ms Michaels herself is a prime example), that sex sells and generally the whole publishing business.

Anyway, it's funny enough for me to check out the next installment. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to read something light with a few laughs.

Another awful book and very slow.

This one is a difficult one to rate. I generally like Kasey Michaels as an author. The mystery was pretty good. (I did figure it out long before the characters, and yet there were still surprises for me in the real details.) By the end of the book, I was very into the characters and really cared about them.

However, the beginning seemed very slow to me. To an extent I understand why; a lot of time was devoted to Maggie accepting and dealing with the appearance of two imaginary characters appearing in the flesh in her apartment. not something that can be glossed over or accepted too quickly. At the same time, I found myself impatient about getting through that. As a reader i was kind of thinking "Yep. That's the premise of the book and your hook to make it interesting. let's get going with the story."

I will probably read the next in the series because the concept is so interesting to me and I did begin to like the characters and their interactions. I'm hoping the series gets better because there will be less introduction of that concept. We'll see.

I was intrigued by the idea of 19th century heroes from England in a 21st century New York setting. The possibilities for humor are endless. Unfortunately we don't get enough of that in this book. The heroes are already way too knowledgeable about modern technology. Still, some of the dialogue made me laugh out loud. Saint Just is gorgeous but too full of himself, Sterling is cute, Maggie is....well Maggie, the cop is modeled too much after Columbo. But since this is a book and not reality I guess it's okay. The story itself developes rather slowly. But when you stick with it you will enjoy the mystery. After having a hard time getting into the story I found myself starting to enjoying it half way through and will read the next book as well. I love Kasey Michaels regency romances and since 'Maggie' has been written long ago any comparison to later books would be unfair. Every writer has to start some where and this just shows how far Kasey has come. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an impulse buy I made on the way to an appointment one day (as I knew I'd have to wait and didn't have anything to read!). Of course, I ended up not having to wait, and so the book has sat on the shelf. I recently read a Goodreads review of it that spurred my interest, and decided to give it a try. I expected a straight-forward romantic suspense story. But what I found was more of a goofball (in a fun way) mystery with a little romance, a little bit of the paranormal, and a lot of cheez. In fact, there was maybe a little too much cheez, even for me. There was also a lot of set-up to the actual mystery (which started to drag), but the story picked up pace with the murder and ended up being a fun read.

Maggie Needs an Alibi is unlike any mystery I've ever read. Maggie takes her work a little too seriously. Her world revolves around the characters she creates and the enigmas she creates. Writing is in her soul and her penchant for mystery has given her sucess. The cliche' about letting the imagination run wild is the perfect metaphor for Ms. Michaels' out of the ordinary suspenseful romance. Maggie and Alexandre blur the lines between fantasy and reality in a way that proves innovative and attention grabbing. A kooky writer becomes entangled in a larger than life mystery with her very own man of her dreams. Twistedly weird but highly addictive.

This book was entertaining enough to keep reading, but the first 150 pages could EASILY have been condensed into 50, giving the author enough room to stretch the ending, instead of winding everything up SOOO quickly. It was like she realized she had a deadline and just needed to give all the answers and end it.

It was an interesting concept, having the characters that you create in your book come to life. It was entertaining that the characters that she created got on her nerves. Saint Just got on my nerves also. It bugged me that they the guys could go off out on the town, spend all of her money and she just lets the.

The characters in this story are great, but the plot is very slow-moving. It's worth reading, but at times it's a slog to get through. Attack this as a marathon not a sprint.

Too many details on some things...and goes off on tangents.

Maggie Kelly, writing as Cleo Dooley (she thinks O's look good on a book cover), is the author of the best selling St. Just Mystery Series set in the English Regency Era. This should make her a happy woman, and it does, mostly. Professionally, she's a hit. Personally? No, not so much. But never fear, a hero has come to rescue her from her dull, boring, and faintly neurotic existence. The only problem is that said hero is Alexandre Blake, Viscount St. Just, her fictional hero, in all his handsome, arrogant Regency-ness. He has popped out of her mind, out of her books, and has somehow landed in her New York apartment, along with his fictional sidekick, the adorable Sterling Balder. Try explaining that one to your friends! While juggling lies explaining her strange "houseguests," Maggie also finds herself the prime suspect in the murder of her publisher and former lover (just because she fed him mushrooms and he died of mushroom poisoning that same night -- really, there such a thing as coincidence, right?). But again, never fear, because her fictional hero is here, and he, amateur sleuth-master that he has been created to be, has promised to step in and save the day. Maggie's pretty much hoping he'll just learn to put the cap back on the toothpaste...

This was a pure joy to read. The main character, an author, character's come to life and live with her to help her solve a crime - except her characters are from the 1800's!! It was faced paced, well written, well put together and often quite comical! I read it in less then eight hours - and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Maggie Kelly is a writer. Of mysteries. Her muses are Aerosmith, Smarties, and cigarettes . . . not necessarily in that order. Alexandre Blake, Viscount Saint Just is an "amateur sleuth, hero extraordinaire, world class lover". With a sidekick, the adorable Sterling Balder. "Miss Kelly, couldn't you have figmented me just a tad thinner?"

They are the main characters in her NYT best selling series. And they also happen to be - in the flesh - in Maggie's Manhattan apartment.

Be prepared to laugh yourself silly as you meander through the exploits of the Viscount and his good friend Sterling as they Maggie

The story itself is engrossing and enjoyable . . . and plausible . . . sort of. The characters uniquely endearing - even the obnoxious victim. By about the middle of the book you'll find yourself giggling regularly. Two thirds of the way in, those giggles become loud guffaws. And all the while that you're being so well entertained, the crime is being solved.

I had an inkling who the perpetrator was, but what fun to watch Saint Just in action!

I'll be honest... I thought it was going to be a real eye-roller, but I actually liked it. It took a good half the book to really get a sense of Maggie's character but then I warmed to her, although I think there's still some work to do there. Saint Just? Well I just found him pedantic and annoying and not in that love-to-hate-them way. Just, hate them way. He's a real turn off to the series frankly. But the other characters and Maggie's bumbling might make it worth picking up the next book. It's a good light read that doesn't require much from the reader except to go along for the ride and not think too hard.

I didn't realize this was a series when i picked it up, so thank goodness it's the first. It's a pretty unique idea for a murder mystery. I did figure it out earlier than the characters,which is disappointing, but still a couple surprises. The meta/ fourth wall stuff where the author in the story talks about a lagging middle section did not solve the problem in real life (like did we really need two "get all the characters together in a room and spitball whodunit" scenes? ) There is definitely an unnecessary amount of exposition but overall entertaining and engaging.

Slow

I found the pace of the story so slow at the beginning and in other areas that I have up and started other books. The premise was cute but the progression was sluggish. Knew who killed was one-third in. I hate giving up on a character but any book that takes me two weeks to read because I kept laying it aside and read a different story, well it's just not attention grabbing or attention keeping.

Silly and clever, a new author to me, a fun read with some over-the-top scenes and great characterizations. I especially liked the British fellows and many of their Regency-era phrases, as odd as our modern sayings were to them. The BBC might want to talk to her about considering this for a production.

3.5 stars

The story was interesting and the mystery kept me reading, even though I figured it out pretty early on. I just didn’t like the characters that much. Maggie especially. She was annoying and I felt no connection to her.

Mash-up

This book has it all - Regency hero plus contemporary cozy mystery plus a soupcon of fantasy when an author's characters come to life.

not sure how it got published

Fan-freaking-tastic!

Love love love Kasey Michaels. She always makes me laugh and fall in love with her characters. Entirely too much fun!

Fan-flipping-tastic. Could not put it down. Moderate swearing, strong innuendo (but only briefly here and there). Cannot wait to read more!!!

Quirky but fun read.

Wow, I don't read many mysteries but this was one I am glad I read. I found the characters and the plots all extremely interesting. The best part is the laughter that's included.

Read this book years ago as a teen. I remember really liking it, but upon rereading it, I’m not quite as impressed:/ 2 stars for an great premise, just doesn’t hit the mark for me.