Riley Rhodes is back in her hometown of Penniman, a charming small New England town. She had left her last job as a librarian for the CIA, well, she’d been asked to leave, because of an assignment that went wrong. So when her best friend, Caroline Spooner, was left her mother’s ice cream shop, Udderly Delicious, Riley offered to run it. A quiet life spent making ice cream in her hometown sounded like a much needed break to Riley, and Caroline didn’t want to leave her job in Boston. It all worked out well.
And since Riley had taken over the shop, things were going well. They were creating new flavors of ice cream that locals and tourists alike found irresistible. As the leaves are just starting to turn, the pumpkin spice is a big hit, but when Riley is tasked with creating ice cream delicacies for the art festival up at the castle Moy Mull, she also brings their cherry vanilla, rhubarb crumble, and pear and Stilton, among others. And when Riley is asked to make a flavor especially for the dinner party that will close out the festival, she chooses an ice cream layered made with local honey and whiskey and layered with raspberries, toasted oats, and whiskey whipped cream, based on the Scottish dessert cranachan.
But Maud Monaco, the owner of Moy Mull and benefactor to the artists who stay at the castle, which she has turned into an artists’ colony. Maud had been a very popular model and went on to marry a prince. The art festival she is hosting this weekend is to honor photographer Adam Blasco. There will be an exhibit of his work, including his famous photo of Maud, and he will be giving a talk about his work as well as taking photos for a cookbook that Maud wants to put out about the festival and the castle, featuring some of Riley’s ice cream recipes as well as some recipes from the caterer Bitsy Bittman.
On Friday morning, before the official start of the festival, Adam and his assistant Vye come to Udderly Delicious to take some photos for the cookbook. Riley can’t help but notice Adam paying extra attention to her teenaged worker and art student Willow. Her boyfriend Luca also notices and isn’t very happy about it. And when Adam flirts with Willow again at the festival, Luca blows up and he and Willow argue about it.
But when Adam doesn’t show up for his talk on Saturday morning, Maud and her man Friday, Prentiss Love, recruit Riley to help search the castle for him. He’s not answering his phone, he’s not in his cabin, he’s not in the castle’s darkroom (although his bag is found there). It’s not until they try the room that’s called “the dungeon” that they find him, dead. Not so much of a dungeon anymore, as it had been when the materials had been brought over from Scotland for an eccentric millionaire. After his death, the castle had been turned into a hotel, and the dungeon had been turned into a bland conference room. Maud was restoring the castle to how it had been, but they hadn’t changed the dungeon back yet.
The room was windowless, and the heavy oak door had been locked. And yet, Adam had been found on the floor close to a dead bee. Adam had been deadly allergic to bees and always had an EpiPen in his camera bag, but his bag had been in the darkroom. How had a bee gotten into the room? Was it a terrible accident, or could it be something darker? Luca was a beekeeper, but did he know about Adam’s allergy? And Maud was also a beekeeper. She had known about the photographer’s allergy, but why set up the exhibit and the festival and the cookbook for him, just to kill him?
Riley’s investigative instincts are telling her that something is wrong about the scene she saw in the dungeon. But what is it that’s buzzing in her brain? And will she be able to figure it out before she’s the one who gets stung next?
Mint Chocolate Murder is the second book in the Ice Cream Shop Mystery series, and author Meri Allen has crafted another masterful mystery. Riley and the cast of characters who help her at the store are full of personality, and the ice cream sounds delicious. The mystery itself is complicated enough to keep readers guessing, and if all that’s not enough, there are two scene-stealing cats to keep things interesting.
I really like Riley and her friends and I thought that Mint Chocolate Murder was very well written. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but I read this one pretty quickly, so I didn’t have too much trouble with that. I can see how some readers might struggle. Had I been more distracted, I would have forgotten who was who. And I kept waiting for the mint chocolate ice cream, but it was the pumpkin spice that was the big seller through this book, and it’s also the featured recipe at the end. But the castle is a fantastic idea for the setting, and after the story there is an afterword all about the castle Allen based the fictional one on.
Egalleys for Mint Chocolate Murder were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
