Book 122, 2024

A Roux of Revenge by Connie Archer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


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Finished my work book at work today. Woo! It was A Roux of Revenge by Connie Archer, and it's the third book in the "Soup Lover's" mystery series. The main character is Lucky Jamieson, who owns and operates the 'By the Spoonful' soup shop.

Autumn in Snowflake VT brings the Fall Festival, along with some itinerant workers to run the fest. When one of them seems to take an interest in Lucky's young waitress, Janie, Lucky wonders if the man has something nefarious in mind. After a man is found murdered in a van along the road, the local police wonder if the travelers had anything to do with it. When Janie goes missing after an argument with her mother, Lucky turns to the travelers to help find her.

This went off-script, as far as cozy mysteries go, but I liked it. Lucky wasn't investigating the murder; rather she was trying to piece together what had gone wrong between Janie and her mother, and then she turned her attention to finding Janie. There was also a strong subplot that involved Lucky's boyfriend, Elias, and his wicked ex. It was almost as if the book had three plots: the murder (which the police were investigating), Janie's disappearance, and the romantic drama. While things melded together neatly, I didn't like that quite a bit of the book remained even after the murder had been solved and the killer apprehended. About 15-20% of the book followed what should have been the finale, and that portion dealt with tying up the other two subplots. Hm. At least Lucky didn't find the dead body. Bonus!

Favorite line: "They know less about horses than I do about nuclear physics."

Wishing I could award 3.5 stars. Since I can't, I'm giving it three; it was a good story, but not outstanding.