Is the Solution to an Old Mystery Here in Town?
When the publisher ended the Shake Shop Mysteries at book three, I thought the series was over. And the ending of book three would have been a nice farewell to the characters. But the author decided to self-publish one more entry - Thrown for a Scoop.
This series is set in the town of Upper Sprocket in the eastern part of Oregon and features Trinidad Jones, who has opened the Shimmy and Shake Shop in town. As this book begins, it’s been about six months since we last checked in with her, and Upper Sprocket is gearing up to celebrate its centennial. Naturally, Trinidad has created a special freak shake for the occasion that she is hoping will sell well with the locals and the tourists alike.
But things take a turn when a stranger walks into Trinidad’s shop asking questions. It turns out that he is a true crime podcaster who is certain that the answer to a fifty-year-old hijacking is somewhere in town. Even worse, he thinks that Trinidad’s fiancé’s brother holds a clue. Doug has some special needs, so Trinidad knows a stranger demanding answers from him won’t go over well. But when the podcaster is killed on the brothers’ nut farm, all the evidence seems to point to Doug. Trinidad swears she won’t get involved again, but she can’t seem to help it. Can she figure out what really happened to the podcaster? Was he on to something with this old mystery?
The book doesn’t waste time at the beginning. It reminds us of the characters and updates us on their lives and sets the mystery in motion very quickly. From there, we get some great moments as Trinidad goes about gathering information. It kept me confused up until the end, but once Trinidad figured everything out, it all made sense.
I will say that there were some rather annoying continuity errors early on in the copy I read. Either I stopped noticing them later in the book or they weren’t an issue. They felt like the result of some changes between drafts that weren’t completely caught after the changes were made. As annoying as they were, none of them impacted the story at all.
It was great to visit the characters again. The cast of supporting characters is quite colorful, and I love spending time with them. Fans will be happy with some of the updates we get for the characters here. The suspects were good and kept us guessing up until the end.
If you have a weakness for ice cream (and who doesn’t), this book will leave you drooling quite a bit. And I’m very curious what exactly is in the breakfast ice cream that is the subject of a subplot. Sadly, there aren’t any recipes at the end of the book, so I’ll have to try to come up with ideas on my own.
I mentioned at the beginning feeling happy with where the characters had been at the end of book three. Yes, they are in a good place again at the end of this book.
It was nice to get another case for Trinidad. Fans should scoop up this book. While the author has moved on to other things now, if she were to revisit these characters, I’d gladly return to Upper Sprocket.
Here’s the scoop on the rest of the Shake Shop Mysteries.
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