Death by Pumpkin Spice: 06/03/20

Death by Pumpkin Spice by Alex Erickson is the third of the Bookstore Cafe mysteries. It's a departure from the others in the series, being primarily a locked room mystery.

Krissy has been invited to a Halloween party, one that is the annual talk of the town. It's set in a house specifically built to be a year-round themed haunted house. The party happens to fall during a strong rain storm, turning the long gravel driveway into an impassable mudslide, essentially trapping everyone there and preventing the police from arriving in a timely manner.

With that set up, there's bound to a murder. Sure enough, a beautiful young woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe is found dead in the pumpkin room. Without police back up, Officer Paul Dalton orders that no one leave the house (not that they could if they wanted to). He also enlists Krissy's help.

When I first started this book, I expected the housebound part of the plot would still only be the first third of book. I was expecting plotting similar to Out of Circulation by Miranda James (2012). Instead, it's more of an And Then There Were None, minus the extra murders.

The setting — a Halloween (or more broadly, horror) themed house during a massive rain storm made for a fun mystery. There are enough clues and details to figure out the motive for the murder and the series of events.

The fourth book is Death by Vanilla Latte (2017).

Four stars

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