When Juniper Jessup, Juni, decided to move back home to Cedar River, Texas, to open a record and coffee shop with her two older sisters, she knew that there would be challenges. What she didn’t expect was that the grand opening party they had planned for weeks would end with murder. But when Juni opened the door to the supply closet at the end of the night, ready to clean the place up for the official opening the next morning, she found the body of a young woman.
Juni had grown up in Texas but had left to go to Oregon after college, to be a part of the tech industry. As a coder, she loved the fast-paced environment and the challenges of creating something from nothing, but when the startup she had been working for shut down with no notice, she decided it was time to move back home. One of her sisters had discovered that the storefront where their grandparents had opened a record store decades before had come available, and the Jessup sisters decided to pool their money and rent it.
Juni, Maggie, and Tansy had grown up in the store, as their parents had taken it over, and they watched as the original records their grandparents had sold turned to cassettes, then CDs. Once streaming hit big, their parents had been forced to close the store. But now vinyl is back, and being close to the music scene in Austin means that there are lots of music fans who are looking for a hip store to learn more about records. And the addition of the coffee shop with the punny daily specials adds character and fun to the shop.
But the dead body in the closet does not.
Juni’s high school boyfriend is now a detective with the local police, and his attention goes to Juni’s uncle Calvin very quickly. Beau Russell notices that Calvin has a bunch of moving violations that he hasn’t answered for, and now there’s a bench warrant for him. Beau arrests Calvin, so he could also question him about the murder. But when Juni and her sisters get him out on bail, by putting up the record store as collateral, Calvin repays them by disappearing.
Juni can’t help but notice that it only makes him look guiltier.
She didn’t have much when she left Oregon to move back to Texas to open her own business. She’s currently living with one of her sisters and riding a tricycle instead of driving a car of her own. She’s not about to let her one investment slip away, and she doesn’t for one second believe that her uncle could kill anyone. She decides that she will have to find the killer in order to clear Calvin’s name, and her sisters agree to help.
As Juni revisits the city where she grew up and reconnects with old friends, she finds herself with an increasingly confounding set of clues that lead her in different directions. But she is as determined to save Sip & Spin Records as she is to show off her collection of vintage rock-n-roll t-shirts, and she will not let herself get distracted by old boyfriends, angry strangers, dangerous thunderstorms, Baby Shark, frustrated grad students, pecan pancakes, or postal workers.
Vinyl Resting Place is the first cozy in the new Record Shop Series by Olivia Blacke. The characters are interesting and multi-layered, and the record shop adds a lot of texture to the story. The combination of the small town and the nearby Austin creates a lovely juxtaposition of the intimate family space and the larger music scene. And the puns of the coffee drinks shoe a playfulness that runs throughout the story.
I enjoyed Vinyl Resting Place. I loved the store and the relationships between the sisters. The small town of Cedar River has a lot of charm and what sounds like very good food. Juni and her sisters have a lot of confidence and all seem to be bringing their best to the shop. But I thought the plotting could have used more surprises, as I figured out who the killer was without a lot of work. However, I did enjoy this story, and I look forward to visiting the Sip & Spin again soon.
Egalleys for Vinyl Resting Place were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
