Book Review: Fatal Fudge Swirl by Meri Allen (Ice Cream Shop Mysteries #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters, creative mystery, Halloween setting

Cons: I’m not ready to think about Halloween yet!

The Bottom Line:

Wedding morning death

Could it turn into murder?

Creative story

The Bride’s a Corpse

As I’m writing this, not only have we not hit the first official day of summer yet, but it’s also been unseasonably cool for Southern California.  It’s more like winter for us than even spring.  And yet, Fatal Fudge Swirl, the third in Meri Allen’s Ice Cream Shop Mysteries, is set at Halloween.  I may not have been ready to think about that holiday yet, but it made a great setting for this mystery.

If you’ve missed this series, it features Riley Rhodes.  A former CIA librarian, she was let go after trusting the wrong person led to a theft.  So, she’s returned home to Penniman, Connecticut, and is helping her friend by running Utterly Delicious, the ice cream stand the friend inherited from her mother.

This book opens just a couple of days before Halloween.  Normally, that would be the end of the season at Utterly, but, thanks to a late leaf season, Riley has decided to stay opened another week to take advantage of the tourists in the area.  In addition to serving tourists, Riley has always been asked to provide the ice cream cake for the Halloween wedding of Diantha Collins.  The Collins have been a prominent family in town for generations even if Diantha and her adult children are living elsewhere.

Riley is on hand when Diantha’s body is found the morning of the wedding.  The circumstances are suspicious, but Riley can’t quite put her finger on what is off.  With the police looking at a friend, Riley takes advantage of a need for help at the inn where the death took place to poke around and see what she can learn.  Will she figure out how Diantha died?

I’m not going to say more about the murder method other than to say I thought it was creative and fun.  It’s definitely not something that we see on a regular basis, which I appreciated.  Naturally, the how is only part of the plot, and Riley also has to figure out the who and the why.  There are plenty of suspects to keep her, and us, guessing.  I didn’t figure out the solution before Riley pieced it together, yet it made sense.

With everyone else going on, there is also a movie production in town filming for a Hallmark like movie company.  That lead to a very funny sub-plot that I really enjoyed.

The suspects in the mystery are all strong, and they kept me guessing until the end.  There are a variety of motives and I appreciated that creativity as well.  Meanwhile, the series regulars are all back and as strong as ever.

Warning: this book will have you craving ice cream.  That’s perfect as we go into the summer months, right?  And if you are a fan of hot fudge, you’ll be interested in the recipes at the end that give us a couple of different versions to try.

I talked about the Halloween setting at the beginning.  The book really leaned into that, and I enjoyed it.  I may not be ready for that holiday (or fall in general) yet, but this book used the holiday setting well without going the spooky route.

Fatal Fudge Swirl is another winning entry in the series.  Grab a bowl of your favorite ice cream and enjoy Riley’s latest case.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.