Book 46, 2024

[chez_jae]

A Broth of Betrayal by Connie Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I only had a little bit of my work book to finish, so I brought it home Friday and read the last of it that night. It was A Broth of Betrayal by Connie Archer, and it's the second in the "Soup Lovers" mystery series. The main character is Lucky Jamieson, but the narrative (in third person pov) does follow a few other characters as well.

The good citizens of Snowflake, VT are up in arms about a car wash that's slated to be built right on the beautiful green space in the middle of town. Things grow heated when the ground breaking begins, but everything comes to a halt when a skeleton is discovered buried there. The townsfolk are in a celebratory mood after the reprieve, but that soon vanishes when Harry, the owner of the auto shop, is found murdered at his place of business. Not long after, Lucky's friend Elizabeth (the mayor of Snowflake) vanishes without a trace. Lucky feels the incidents must be connected. Tensions rise as the days go by with no sign of Elizabeth, culminating in another murder. Lucky becomes ever more frantic in her efforts to locate Elizabeth, and she can only hope her friend is still alive.

The plot was interesting in a convoluted sort of way. Things didn't seem connected at first, but as the story progressed, those connections became clearer. I liked the fact that Lucky was devoting far more of her time searching for Elizabeth than trying to do any amateur investigating. It added plausibility to the storyline.

Favorite line: "I've just lived a long time and I can smell the lawn fertilizer a mile away."

The 'holding my breath' line: She hadn't realized she was holding her breath.

Good story, four stars