Head for Murder by Chase Connor

Head for Murder

Author: Chase Connor

Rating: B-

Vibe: Coziest of the cozy — small town Iowa, a bookstore, a cat, and a murder that nobody seems very upset about

There's a version of a mystery novel that keeps you up until 2am, heart pounding, flipping pages in a panic. Head for Murder is not that book. And that's kind of the point. Chase Connor isn't trying to write Gone Girl. He's writing a cup of chamomile tea in novel form, and if you come to it expecting exactly that, you're going to have a perfectly lovely time.

Jackson Harper owns a bookstore in Head Rock Harbor, a small river town in Iowa that, as Connor cheerfully tells us, more or less invented the concept of small-town living. Jackson has a cat named Rattlesnatches, a complicated relationship with his best friend Detective Jeremy Morris, and an apparently genetic inability to mind his own business. When a local artist turns up dead in the harbor, the official verdict is misadventure. Jackson is not convinced. And so we're off.

What makes Head for Murder work is Jackson himself. He's just... remarkably likeable. Warm, a little guarded, quietly funny — the kind of person you'd want running your neighborhood bookstore. He gives you the feels in a way that sneaks up on you. He doesn't announce himself as a protagonist you should root for. He just is one. That ease of character is genuinely hard to write, and Connor pulls it off well.

The Jackson-Jeremy dynamic is the obvious long game here, and Connor plays it carefully — maybe a little too carefully. There's chemistry there, but it's currently sitting in the waiting room filling out paperwork. You can guess where things are heading, and the tension is pleasant enough, but it's more of a slow simmer than a burn. Whether that pays off across the series remains to be seen. For now, it's a dynamic worth being curious about, if not exactly urgent.

Now, here's the thing I'd want anyone to know before picking this up: Head for Murder is the coziest of cozy mysteries. I mean that with sincere affection and without a drop of condescension — but you need to adjust your expectations accordingly. The stakes are low. The angst is low. The drama is low. Nobody is unraveling. Nobody is in genuine peril. Even the murder feels more like a puzzle than a threat. If that sounds like exactly the comfort read you need right now, congratulations — you've found your book. If you're looking for something with more tension or complexity, you may find yourself a little restless.

That restlessness is my main critique: the mystery itself is half-decent but doesn't quite deliver. The small cast of suspects means you're not exactly swimming in red herrings, and I'd have welcomed a few more clues, a few more characters with murky motives, a few more moments where the puzzle genuinely surprised me. It's a fair mystery — nothing is unfair or cheap — it just doesn't push very hard.

As for Head Rock Harbor itself: it's a cute setting, and Connor renders it with obvious affection. Small-town Iowa isn't exactly a glamorous backdrop for a gay protagonist, which is sort of the point — Jackson isn't living a dramatic coastal gay life. He's settled somewhere quieter, somewhere slower, and there's something quietly meaningful about that. A gay man who's made a home in a place like this, who's woven into its fabric, who's trusted and known — that's a representation that doesn't get enough airtime.

Head for Murder is a B- for me: genuinely charming, a protagonist worth following, and a setting that earns its coziness. The mystery could push harder, and the romance is taking its sweet time — but sometimes a low-stakes, warm-hearted read is exactly what the doctor ordered. Just don't go looking for a thriller. This is a hammock book. Settle in accordingly.