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Thursday, July 28, 2022

Book Review: Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen (Ice Cream Shop Mysteries #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Strong characters and a fun mystery
Cons: Very little mint chocolate in the book
The Bottom Line:
Art festival death
With a locked room component
Makes for a fun book



Was the Photographer’s Death Picture Perfect?

I love ice cream, and I enjoyed the first in the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries from Meri Allen. Naturally, that means I was looking forward to Mint Chocolate Murder, the second in the series. I was not disappointed. 

The first book in the series introduced us to Riley Rhodes, a former CIA librarian who is on leave from that job and now running Udderly Delightful, an ice cream stand in her home town of Penniman, Connecticut.

As this book opens, summer is turning to September, and Riley finds that the stand is in the lull between summer tourists and leaf peeping tourists. But former supermodel Maude Monico is using the time to host an art festival at the castle she has bought just outside of town. Riley will have a booth selling ice cream at the event, but Maude has also hired Riley to provide the refreshments at the ice cream social opening event. 

That gives Riley a chance to observe photographer Adam Blasco, the biggest draw for the weekend. His photographs are controversial, and as Riley watches the man in action, she begins to wonder just what his relationship with his models is. When Adam fails to appear for his talk the next day, people begin searching the grounds for him. Eventually, they find him locked in the castle’s dungeon - I mean conference room - dead. Riley quickly picks up on some things that make the death seem to be malicious. If she is right, can she find the killer?

Even though this is the second in the series, there is still quite a bit of set up needed for this book, including the history of the castle. Yes, it does make sense that a Scottish castle would be in Connecticut. It helps that this castle is inspired by a real one, just with a changed name and location. I’ll admit as the book went along, I enjoyed the history about the castle that was woven through the noble. 

While we are getting this background, we are also meeting suspects and learning a bit about Adam. The nature of the murder presents a locked room puzzle that Riley has to solve, so we have a how done it in addition to a who done it. That kept me engaged, and the pages flew by until Riley pieces things together. 

In the first book, we met a fun cast of characters. I enjoyed getting to see them again here and getting to learn more about them. There was one who was reduced to a cameo, and I would have liked to see more of him. But if he’s had more scenes, that would have just slowed the story down, so I get it. The suspects are interesting and strong, so they keep us guessing. 

If you love ice cream, this book will make you crave it. Mint Chocolate is one of my favorite flavors, so I was a bit disappointed that it only got a couple of cursory mentions. However, all the mentions of Pumpkin Spice will make you happy to have a recipe for that at the end. 

Mint Chocolate Murder is a delicious second mystery for Riley Rhodes. Dish up a bowl of your favorite ice cream and enjoy this fun mystery. 

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book. 

3 comments:

  1. Wow, this does sound like a fun one. I added the first one in the series to my TBR list.

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  2. Yummy! Sounds like a book that would make me crave ice cream!

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  3. Your con made me laugh as I'm a big mint chocolate ice cream fan. This series has been on my TBR and I need to read it - though I will make sure to have ice cream nearby!

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