The Path of the Crooked is a charming Christian cozy mystery. It is the first book in the Hope Street Church Mystery Series by Ellery Adams. It was originally published under the pen name Jennifer Stanley but the author revised the story and has published it under the pen name Ellery Adams. There were only three books in the original series and I am not sure whether she will continue to write novels for the series.

The main character is Cooper Lee. She is a copy machine repairman who has recently been dumped by her boyfriend of five years. While repairing a copier at a client's office Cooper meets Brooke Hughes, a member of the Hope Street Church. The two ladies have a short conversation wherein Brooke gives Cooper a church brochure and invites her to church. Cooper accepts the brochure and leaves.

Later that evening she considers whether to visit the church on the next Sunday. Her family sees the brochure and asks her if she will go. They also are devout Christians who hope Cooper will return to church after a several year absence. When she visits Hope Street Church a few weeks later Cooper meets the members of the Sunrise Bible Study group. During that initial meeting the news broke that Brooke Hughes had been murdered. Brooke's husband Wesley had been arrested for the murder and the group cannot believe that he killed his wife. They begin their own investigation hoping that they can free Wesley Hughes.

I absolutely loved this story. There were plenty of clues for the group to follow up on. I was surprised that the police did not play much into the investigation but perhaps they will in future installments of the series. The pace was perfect, not too fast and not too slow. The characters were memorable. Each Bible study member were quirky characters that made the sleuthing entertaining. Savannah is legally blind and is the leader of the group. Nathan is a love interest for Cooper. TV meteorologist Bryant, realtor Trish, Jake and Quinton complete the group. It was fascinating that the group did the sleuthing together. I have never read a book where there was more than one amateur sleuth. However, in this instance, it works. Cooper's family was also memorable. Her mother is constantly cooking and baking for people in need and reading about her foods made me hungry. There are recipes of hers at the back of the book. Cooper's sister Ashley is also quirky. Ashley is an overbearing lover of fashion, expensive restaurants and is a social climber. Cooper herself is interesting. She is a smoker who dresses in a masculine style and is fine to be by herself alot. All of these folks will contribute to fantastic storylines in the future. ( )

A republished version of Jennifer Stanley's Stirring Up Strife, [The Path of the Crooked] introduces us to copier repairwoman Cooper Lee. After her longtime boyfriend broke up with her, she needs to get her life back on track. After meeting a woman who attended Hope Street Church, she shows up one Sunday morning. She's taken to a Sunday school class where she and the class learn the woman was murdered and that her husband was charged. Cooper doesn't believe the charge based on her short encounter with the woman, and the Sunday school class believes the husband incapable of murder. They set out to investigate, piecing together clues from the jammed copier where Cooper first met the woman. Readers will immediately realize this is one of the author's early efforts because of problems with pacing and character development. Although the plot was revised somewhat from the earliest efforts, the pacing problem remains. By the end of the book, readers can distinguish the characters, but lack of development earlier in the plot sometimes creates confusion when a character is encountered later. I'm undecided about reading additional series installments. ( )

I received a free kindle copy of The Path of the Crooked by Ellery Adams published by Beyond the Page Publishing, from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. I gave it five stars because it held my attention & kept me guessing who was the murderer. It is a revised edition of a book previously titled Stirring Up Strife by Jennifer Stanley published by St. Martin's Press.

Cooper Lee has recently broken up with her fiancee of 5 years and moved into the apartment at her parent's place. She works for a company repairing copiers and is not sure where her life is heading. With the support of her father, Earl, mother, Maggie and her Grammy, she begins to take small steps to change her life. At one of her jobs, she meets Brooke who invites her to attend "Hope Street Church". She really likes how friendly Brooke is so takes he up on her offer. She gets there early and accidentally stumbles into a Bible Study Group that changes her life. She finds out Brooke has been murdered and that her husband is being held for the murder. The group decide they need to help free him. Working with Nathan (a man she finds herself attracted to) they stumble into a major fraud situation. More murders and/or attempted murders occur, she finds herself falling for Nathan, another missing parishioner garners their attention, the search for the mysterious "Hazel" and her life being put in danger all roll together into a mystery that grips your attention and keeps you guessing. I was not sure about the Church aspect of the book at first, but it fit right in and it was nice to see how her spirituality helped her to make some of the decisions she did. ( )

Cooper Lee's life hasn't been going great - her boyfriend of 5 years dumped her and her parents are worried because she moved back to their home (living over the garage) so when one of her clients (she repairs copiers) invites her to her church, Cooper goes only to find that while attending a Bible class, the lady who invited her has been murdered.

Making new friends while trying to find the person who really killed her client keeps Cooper on her toes as well as helping adjust to her new circumstances. ( )

4 STARS
This book is a reprint that was called Stirring Up Strife by Jennifer Stanley. She has rewritten them but the basic plot is the same. I did not read the story the first time around.
I enjoyed The Path of the Crooked. I plan to read the next in the series The Way of the Wicked.
Cooper Lee gets invited to come to church and ends up in a bible study class. So there is a lot of talk of the bible, prayer. It fits right into the story. So this is full of mystery, romance, likeable characters and drama in a clean read.

Cooper is at time of change in her life. Her boyfriend had dumped her, She has moved back home to apartment over her parents garage.
No real friends. She is invisible at work most of the time. She gets invited to Church by Brooke Hughes one day while she is fixing her copier. She arrives at wrong time and gets taken to a bible class.

Cooper meets a lot of new people in the class and before it ends they find out that Brook was murdered and her husband has been arrested for it. The Bible class does not believe Wesley murdered his wife Brook. They want to help prove he is innocent and find the guilty person.

I like the cast of characters in the bible class. They work together to help each other and other members of their church and neighborhood when they see a need.

Cooper soon is involved in helping others and makes more friends along the way.

There are a lot of food talked about in this book and at the end of the book is recipes for some of the food. It does make you hungry for fresh homemade cookies.

I was given this ebook from Net Galley Beyond the Page Publishing so I could give a honest review of The Path of the Crooked. ( )