# A Zoom with a View

By Jess Cannon · Blue Oak Mysteries, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/a-zoom-with-a-view-ed5a46ca/

Leo Holloway returns to Blue Oak, Texas, with an academic career that has gone nowhere and a photography job at her godmother’s real-estate firm. Finding a rival agent dead on a property turns that fresh start into a murder case. Her godmother is arrested, and Leo helps a local detective investigate.

## What makes it funny?

Leo and her friend Emily already have an extensive private interest in the victim: they secretly moderate a Reddit group mocking his influencer persona. Chaz’s advice and self-important posts have supplied years of entertainment. Now their favorite target is dead, and the women behind the anonymous commentary have a crime to untangle.

### The comedy at work

Cannon gives online self-promotion a skeptical audience inside the story. Reddit exchanges sit alongside police memos and voicemail transcripts, letting the murder investigation share space with the town’s gossip and public performances.

### Try this if…

Readers who enjoy social-media satire woven into a small-town mystery, with a disappointed academic for a sleuth and romantic complications involving old classmates.

### Good to know

The setup includes a victim with a bashed-in skull. A love triangle and Leo’s difficult relationship with her mother occupy space alongside the investigation.

## What to expect

- Genre: Crime & thriller · Mystery
- On the shelf: Amateur sleuth · Cozy mystery
- Kind of humor: Satire
- Format: Novel
- Length: 384 pages
- Published: 2026

## A few distinguishing details

- An amateur sleuth who secretly moderated a snark group about the victim

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [A Zoom with a View by Jess Cannon | Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788165/a-zoom-with-a-view-by-jess-cannon)
- Publisher: [Publisher description and edition](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788165/a-zoom-with-a-view-by-jess-cannon)
- Review: [Publishers Weekly review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9798217047444)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jess-cannon/a-zoom-with-a-view)
- Author commentary: [Author fictional companion archive](https://www.jess-cannon.com/snarksubarchive)
- Author commentary: [Author series page](https://www.jess-cannon.com/blueoakbooks)
- Publisher: [Publisher cover image](https://images1.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9798217047444)