Death by Vanilla Latte: 07/22/20

Death by Vanilla Latte by Alex Erickson is the fourth in the Bookstore Café series. Krissy's father, James Hancock, has come to visit Pine Hills to do a book signing. When his obnoxious agent is found murdered, James ends up being the prime suspect!

Usually when an author comes to a main character's town for a book signing, they end up dead. I can't recall another book where the agent ends up dead, although I can think of one example where the agent was the murderer.

Of course, here, the author is a recurring character and the protagonist's father. Familial association gives him a level of protection not given most authors in a murder mystery.

Maybe because I'd read a bunch of visiting boorish people being murdered books in close succession, I found this particular mystery not as engaging as others in the series. The father as suspect, also brought to mind the current TV version of Nancy Drew.

That said, I do appreciate how Erickson plays with expectations. The usual tropes appear in his books, as is to be expected, but the way they unfold is usually contrary to expectations. The downside, though, is that Krissy continues to spend an inordinate amount of her narration time over thinking situations.

The fifth book in the series is Death by Eggnog (2017).

Four stars

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