What do readers think of Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West? Write your own review.

I really enjoyed Making Friends Can Be Murder. The story was interesting . The idea of a club with people with the same name is different but fun. Same names and different personalities makes enjoyable reading. I found the idea of yarn bombing intriguing.

Sarah Jones 17, a high school senior needed a challenge to keep her interested and out of trouble. Sister Mary Theresa, with Sarah's mother, hatched the idea of "an internet extravaganza" designed to bring an intergenerational group, with only their names (Sarah Jones) as a common thread, to explore whether there can be authentic friendship between women of all ages.

When one of their group is murdered, other aspects of their lives surface, and what an unexpected variety of backgrounds it takes to solve the crime.

Throw in a few more unexpected characters, and we have a intriguing mystery -- or two. A light-weight summer-fun read.

I read this in two nights! It had friendship, mystery, and a little romance with engaging characters. I found the idea of a multi-generational same name club that solved crimes an interesting premise and the author executed it well. At first the dates were a bit confusing but once I realized the timeline shifted back and forth, I paid better attention at the beginning of the chapter to the dates.

This cozy mystery is more intriguing and the characters better fleshed out than most books in this genre.The book's premise is unique and you find yourself caring about the characters from page one. And while loyal to the cozy formula of murder, romance and no big twists; you still find yourself flipping the page to get to see how it all works out.

A couple of detractors include more repetition of the plot than the reader needs or wants, a weird covid murder that couldn't have been witnessed the way it was described, two families who have similar backgrounds,  (mom dies at birth and father raises the only child.) which seemed a stretch. However, this book is 4 for me as the author went above and beyond for a cozy by providing multiple plots and characters that tied together making for an intriguing read.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Publishers and BookBrowse.com for this Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had a great time reading Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West! The premise—a group of women, all named Sarah Jones, getting tangled up in a murder case—was fresh and fun, and the mystery kept me hooked. Sarah, the main character, is new to town and just looking for community, but she ends up in the middle of a fraud case, an FBI investigation, and a decades-old cold case with ties to a summer camp. There's a great mix of humor, suspense, and quirky characters (a nun with a mysterious past? Yes, please!). It's entertaining, light, and twisty—perfect for a weekend read.

Fans of character-driven mysteries, light thrillers with humor, and stories about small-town secrets will enjoy this one.

This book took me on an enjoyable adventure into the lives of a group of women (and a man, George) at various stages of their lives. I loved the idea of a group of women of diverse ages getting together in the real and digital worlds to create art, support each other and combat loneliness in the big world.

The four most dominant characters (30, 27, 17 and George) are developed well enough to make me see them from all sides, they felt real and got my empathy. Nobody is perfect in this story, except maybe the long dead (I LIKE that).

It is a contemporary story, in that there are a few pages of vlog transcripts and a few more of group text messages, but not too much of that to be annoying. The romance felt real; there was real caring and real conflict, not just misunderstandings that get "sorted" on the last page. I loved the older women in the story also, the nun and 69 were a hoot.

The book is light and funny but not predictable and I appreciated the entertainment value of that. It is not gory or too suspenseful, just enough to keep me coming back to find out what happens, but not too much as to keep me awake at night! The very definition of a cozy mystery, but set in modern times.

I hope this mystery solving team gets repeat mysteries to share in a season 2 or 3 of the Sarah Jones Project and we get to know all of the team better.

I loved the premise of this book--women with the same name (Sarah Jones) but very different backgrounds form a group. I loved getting to know the different characters, and it was fun to see how they interacted with each other.

When another Sarah Jones meets an untimely death that looks a lot like murder, the group turns its attention to crime solving.

I thought the author did a great job of interweaving all the various story lines and keeping things moving. A nice cozy mystery. And I love the book cover!

The premise of the book—a group of women with the same name—attracted me. The assigning of numbers to each of them to tell them apart was necessary but seemed so arbitrary that it became a distraction and a struggle for me to keep them straight. When the explanation was finally given much further into the book, the story became much more cohesive and easier to follow.

It took longer than most books I read to hook me and send my reading into the frenzied phase. The characters were easy to relate to and well developed. The dialogue was amusing. Their struggles were relatable. The ending was satisfying. This was a fun read. It includes discussion questions.

I must mention two supporting characters who almost stole the show. Sister Mary Theresa and Supervisory Special Agent in Charge Vance delighted me, made me chuckle, and I admired them tremendously. This book would be sorely lacking without them. I would love to see them star in a sequel.

I received an advance electronic copy of this book through BookBrowse and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.