Death by Tea: 04/22/20

Death by Tea by Alex Erickson is the second in the Bookstore Café mystery series. Krissy Hancock's cafe and bookstore is over-run with out of town mystery lovers. There's an intercity book club competition and this year the book they're dueling over is one of her father's mysteries.

It's going to be a crazy busy week. It'll mean good business but it also means people tearing apart her father's least favorite book. And then things get worse when one of the competitors is found murdered in the store, his head bashed in with the trophy. Worse yet, Krissy is the prime suspect.

The identity of the actual murderer is frankly pretty obvious. Krissy, though, is distracted by her awful neighbor who seems to take sick pleasure in spreading rumors and calling the police on her. She also has to contend with Officer John Buchannan who wants to see her get in trouble.

Despite the obvious murder, the book was still fun to listen to. Krissy doesn't embrace her role as amateur sleuth the way most cozy main characters do. She is also the most distracted lead I've read. But these aren't character flaws per se, just a different approach to the genre.

The third book in the series is Death by Pumpkin Spice (2016).

Four stars

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