Mint Chocolate Murder is the second Ice Cream Shop storefront cozy mystery by Meri Allen. Due out 26th July 2022 from Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 304 pages and will be available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
Small town shopfront cozies full of whimsy, easy to read, and with a puzzle to solve, are my favorites. This is the second book in a promising series with a self-contained mystery, fun eccentric local characters, a disagreeable murder victim who turns up dead and a stable full of potential suspects for former CIA librarian (and spy)-turned-ice-cream-shop-manager Riley Rhodes to untangle.
It's well written with light, non-intrusive (if not overly realistic) dialogue, and with a plot that moves along at a good clip. It's the second book in the series, but the necessary backstory is written in, and the mystery is self contained in this installment, so it's fine as a standalone. The language is clean (very light PG level with a single "damn" and nothing else to scandalize an elderly auntie).
This one also includes a tempting looking recipe for no-churn pumpkin spice ice cream.
Four stars. Definitely one for fans of shopfront cozies.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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