Just Finished Reading Carbs and Cadavers by Ellery Adams

A while back I delved into the literary subgenre of "cozy mysteries", that is, short novels...usually combined into different series...that are relatively light reading and usually carry some sort of theme appealing to various tastes.  I wasn't too impressed with what I read back then but decided to give it another try with a new author.  Ellery Adams is the pseudonym of prolific cozy mystery writer Jennifer Stanley, also writing under the name J.B. Stanley.  I just finished reading the first book in her Supper Club Mystery series, titled Carbs and Cadavers. After his divorce, college English professor James Henry has returned to his small (fictional) hometown of Quincy's Gap, in western Virginia, to assume head librarian duty there and live with and care for his recently widowed father Jackson.  James feels he has a problem with food, chiefly cheese puffs, to which he seems addicted.  He becomes acquainted with and befriends others in this small community, and they decide to start an informal weight loss support group called the Supper Club, in which they would encourage one another and hold themselves accountable for eating better.  Thet's one side of the story...the other is a murder mystery when an arrogant young man is found dead with a suspicious prescription drug in his system...from there the police hastily jump to conclusions and arrest the wrong suspect.  This involves James, his potential love interest Lucy, and the rest of the group in the mystery...which naturally ends up as a perilous climactic situation.  I felt that Stanley (or Adams, if you will) had her heart in the story and did a great job of developing its characters.  And she exhibited a lot of good-naturedness as well...but if you're particularly sensitive to "body shaming" you might not like this tale about people possessing the virtues of humility and humor working together to make each other's lives better. Since I've done my share during my adult life of yo-yoing up and down the scales, I identified with the characters and enjoyed Carbs and Cadavers...and plan to embark soon on the second Supper Club Mystery installment...