Book 2, 2023

Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I finished reading Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen this evening. It's the second book in the "Ice Cream Shop" mystery series. Narrative is first-person pov from the main character, Riley Rhodes, ex-CIA librarian and current manager of a successful ice cream shop owned by her BFF.

Riley is excited and intrigued when former super model, Maud Monaco, summons her to the gothic castle in Penniman to serve up some fascinating flavors of ice cream at the arts festival Maud is hosting at Moy Mull. Riley jumps at the chance to hob nob at the castle, where she meets several interesting people. One of them is famed photographer Adam Blasco, who has a history of dark obsession with his models, one of whom was Maud. When Blasco is found murdered in the locked dungeon of the castle, Riley can't help but do some sleuthing of her own. What she learns is there were many people at Moy Mull who had reason to wish harm on the obnoxious photographer. The trick will be finding out who actually did him in.

The story was interesting, characters were fully realized, and the plot flowed and made sense. I enjoyed reading about Riley doing things other than investigating, although she constantly had her ear to the ground.

Two complaints: First, the title of the book. I can't recall as that mint chocolate was mentioned at all. Instead, it being the fall season, pumpkin spice ice cream dominated the story. Second, the solution to a subplot destroyed an innocent person's business, and I saw no need for that. What did it add to the story? Nothing except a distraction from the main plot.

Favorite lines:
♦ "They say all the good stuff happens at the end of your comfort zone."
♦ "Did you hear I got hit on the head with a book? I have only my shelf to blame."
♦ I didn't have time to read the books I owned. I can relate. Woe.

Decent book, over all. Four stars.