Is there an audiobook of Best Laid Plans?

Yes. Best Laid Plans has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Vivienne Leheny.

How long is the Best Laid Plans audiobook?

The Best Laid Plans audiobook runs 9 hr 3 min.

Is Best Laid Plans on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes. Best Laid Plans was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 6, 2026.

Best Laid Plans by Gwen Florio book cover for the Book of the Day cozy mystery book review

Our score

4.3/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Best Laid Plans free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

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EDITION PUBLISHEDJune 2026

PublisherSevern House Publishers, Limited

Genres

Fiction Cozy Mystery Contemporary

Themes

Reinvention after betrayalStarting over at fiftyBeing an outsider under suspicionFreedom and isolation

Best Laid Plans

Name: Best Laid Plans
Price: 0.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Gwen Florio

Gwen Florio

Gwen Florio's BEST LAID PLANS opens a cozy mystery series with a heroine who's just torched her old life at fifty. Nora Best has swapped a faithless marriage for an Airstream and a cross-country escape, but a night at a Wyoming campground goes wrong, a man vanishes, and Nora finds herself the prime suspect in his apparent murder.

The Review

Our take

There's a particular pleasure in a mystery that starts with a personal catastrophe rather than a corpse, and Florio leans into it. The opening beat lands hard: Nora discovers her supposedly ideal husband betraying her at the very party meant to send the two of them off into retirement adventure. She bolts, hauling a trailer she barely knows how to tow, and that small detail does a lot of quiet work. It tells you this is a woman improvising her entire life in real time, which makes her a satisfying amateur to follow once the actual crime arrives.

The shape of the story is classic cozy with a road-trip twist. Nora's flight strands her at a mountain campground run by a couple named Brad and Miranda. A night of commiserating drinks turns into a morning of panic when Brad is gone and the ground around the site tells an ugly story. From there Florio works the familiar engine of the genre. An outsider stumbles into a small place, gets blamed, and has to clear her own name, all filtered through Nora's specific predicament. She's untethered, unfamiliar with the terrain, and abruptly the most convenient suspect anyone could ask for. That isolation gives the suspense a real pulse without ever tipping into anything grisly.

The Wyoming setting earns its keep. The openness of the country mirrors how exposed Nora is, with nowhere familiar to retreat to and no one obliged to take her side. Florio uses the campground's smallness against her heroine too, turning a place that should feel restful into a closing trap. The early chapters spend more time on Nora's wrecked marriage and the emotional aftermath than on the missing man, but that groundwork is doing something. By the time the trouble lands, you actually care what happens to her.

As a series opener it's juggling two jobs: resolving this disappearance and setting Nora up for whatever comes down the road. For the most part it manages both without feeling like one long prologue. The investigation tightens as Nora grasps how few allies she has, and the pacing stays brisk once the search begins. I won't speak to how the solution resolves, but the setup is fair-minded and the threat stays grounded in Nora's circumstances rather than reaching for shock.

Why you should read

Readers who like amateur sleuths who are smart, flawed, and starting over
Cozy fans who enjoy a strong sense of place and small-town suspicion
Anyone drawn to road-trip and reinvention stories with a mystery hook
Series starters where the protagonist matters as much as the puzzle

What to expect

Warm, readable prose with a wry undercurrent of hard-won humor
A slower, character-first setup before the central mystery kicks in
Road-trip atmosphere with a sense of place doing quiet but steady work
Cozy pacing — no graphic violence, tension built through situation and character

Florio seems most interested in building a heroine, not just a sleuth, and that's worth knowing going in. If you come to cozies for the puzzle above all else, the early stretch's focus on heartbreak and reinvention may test your patience before the crime properly kicks off. But it's also the reason the danger means something when it lands, and it leaves you curious where the Airstream rolls next.

Reviewed by Quinn · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.3/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Best Laid Plans free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Best Laid Plans?: Yes. Best Laid Plans has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Vivienne Leheny.
Listen to Best Laid Plans free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Best Laid Plans audiobook?: The Best Laid Plans audiobook runs 9 hr 3 min.
Is Best Laid Plans on Kindle Unlimited?: Yes. Best Laid Plans was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 6, 2026.
How much does Best Laid Plans cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $0.99, Paperback $17.95, Hardcover $14.87. Prices as of August 26, 2026 at 3:46 AM EDT and may change.

Filed underCozy Mystery Contemporary Browse the archive →

CollectionsShort Reads Hidden Gems Browse collections →

Common questions

What is Best Laid Plans about?: There's a particular pleasure in a mystery that starts with a personal catastrophe rather than a corpse, and Florio leans into it. The opening beat lands hard: Nora discovers her supposedly ideal husband betraying her at the very party meant to send the two of them off into retirement adventure…
Is Best Laid Plans worth reading?: We scored Best Laid Plans 4.3 out of 5. Gwen Florio's BEST LAID PLANS opens a cozy mystery series with a heroine who's just torched her old life at fifty. Nora Best has swapped a faithless marriage for an Airstream and a cross-country escape, but a night at a Wyoming campground goes wrong, a man vanishes, and Nora…