Tea Cups And Carnage
A Tourist Trap Mystery, Book #7
Lynn Cahoon
5 Stars
Synopsis:
The kettle’s about to boil over . . .
The quaint coastal town of South Cove, California, is all abuzz about the opening of a new specialty shop, Tea Hee. But as Coffee, Books, and More owner Jill Gardner is about to find out, there’s nothing cozy about murder . . .
Shop owner Kathi Corbin says she came to South Cove to get away from her estranged family. But is she telling the truth? And did a sinister someone from her past follow her to South Cove? When a woman claiming to be Kathi’s sister starts making waves and a dead body is found in a local motel, Jill must step in to clear Kathi’s name—without getting herself in hot water.
Includes an excerpt from A STORY TO KILL, Lynn Cahoon’s BRAND NEW series (Goodreads)
Review:
This is the seventh book in the Tourist Trap Mystery series and it is a very good read. Jill is busy with Coffee, Books and More, her coffee shop/bookstore that she owns, getting the food truck up and running and keeping her relationship with her boyfriend, Greg, moving on the right track. That’s a lot for anyone to handle and when you throw in a murder, it becomes almost overwhelming.
The character are well developed and well rounded. I enjoy the bickering and banter between Jill and Aunt Jackie, she is a real pistol. Aunt Jackie is a hard person to like, even Jill has trouble sometimes liking her, and she’s her niece! Jill has a lot of good friends and coworkers and it is enjoyable reading about all of their interactions.
There is more than one mystery to be solved: where did the deposit money go, who is the killer and what is up with Kathi’s family. I really enjoyed this fact and thought it added another level to the book. Jill, who is already busy running the coffee/book store and participating in the Summer Beach Bash and the library fundraiser, needs to find the time to work at solving these many mysteries. Can she figure them all out in time or will there be more murders taking place?
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the fact that Jill never saw the dead body. She heard about it but she was not the one to find it. That was refreshing to me since that is not what usually happens in the cozies that I read. Another thing that made this book slightly unique was the fact that Jill does not continually put herself in harm’s way. She asks questions and looks for clues but is not always placing herself in dangerous situations. This made the book seem more realistic to me.
I would recommend this book (and series) to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I have read all of this series and I have greatly enjoyed them all.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.
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