A Deadly Inside Scoop: 07/25/20

A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette and Joell Jacob (narrator) is the start of the Ice Cream Parlor mystery series. Bronwyn "Win" Crewse has returned home to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, to run her grandparents' ice cream parlor. Her aunt had tried turning it into a something more akin to a touristy bodega and had nearly bankrupted the store. Wyn's plan is to return to the tried and true: just ice cream, sundaes, ice cream cakes — all featuring her grandmother's recipes.

From the very get-go, this cozy mystery has the feel in terms of setting and that sense of tradition of a long running shop to Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian (2018). The big differences, though, it's a mystery, and it features a Black family, written by a Black author.

This mystery takes its sweet time introducing the characters, the setting (both the shop and the town), and the family dynamic, and the family history (including a near disastrous run in with a con man some years back). Then after staying with Wyn through her first slow day of running the shop, the mystery part is finally introduced. How things unfold is organic and the timing is perfect. Frankly I would have happily kept listening even without the sleuthing.

The second book is A Game of Cones and will release on March 2, 2021.

Five stars

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