A Game of Cones

January 1, 2021
Discovering corpses is becoming quite the habit for a small-town Ohio shop owner. Since finding the body of fraudster Stephen Bayard in a snowdrift in A Deadly Inside Scoop (2019), Bronwyn Crewse has sworn off murder for good. She's got her hands full running Crewse Creamery with the dubious help of her Aunt Jack, who may have given up ownership of the shop but not her opinions about how it should be stocked. You can't outrun fate, though, and pretty soon, Win's tripping across the remains of someone else whose demise is not universally mourned. Zeke Reynolds, Rhys Enterprises' point man in Chagrin Falls, had been bound and determined to erect a vertical mall on one side of the village green. His demise stops the unpopular gentrification project in its tracks and launches a police investigation into his murder. Because Win's the one who found the late Mr. Reynolds, Detective Liam Beverly is eager to interview her about the incident. Fueled by her love of British detective television shows, Win's best friend, Maisie Solomon, is an equally avid sleuth, especially when she discovers that her grandmother Rivkah's gun has gone missing. What most persuades Win to get involved is the arrival of her former colleague Rory Hunter, sent from New York by Win's old boss to woo her back to corporate nirvana. Rory's baggage includes a head of flaming red hair, a disdain for any coffee not brewed by Java Joe's, and a pair a Louboutin pumps, which are soon discovered in the trash soaked with blood. As the female gumshoes run amok, the solution pops up out of nowhere.

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January 25, 2021
At the start of Collette’s entertaining sequel to 2020’s A Deadly Inside Scoop, Bronwyn “Win” Crewse, the proprietor of her family’s ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, attends a meeting of the Shop Owners of Chagrin Falls Association, where Zeke Reynolds, the nervous representative of a Texas real estate company, gives the group an update on his company’s plans to build a mall in the village. The SOOCFA members make it clear they don’t care for the idea. When one of Win’s best friends, Riya Amacarelli, throws her shoe at Zeke, he cries, “Don’t shoot the messenger!” The next day, Zeke’s body is found in an alley, and Win, Riya, and Win’s other best friend, Maisie Solomon, join forces to discover which shop owner shot him. The stakes rise with the arrival of a former colleague from the New York City ad agency where Win once worked, who says she wants to lure Win back to New York, but isn’t telling the whole truth. Distinctive characters and sharp dialogue more than make up for some unresolved subplots. Cozy readers will look forward to the further adventures of Win and friends. Agent: Rachel Brooks, Bookends Literary.