By: Lynn Cahoon
Series: Tourist Trap Mystery #6
ISBN: 9781601834195
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: 2/2/2016
Format: e-book
My Rating: 4 Stars
The food truck craze has reached the charming coastal town of South Cove, California, but before Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More—can sample the eats, she has to shift gears and put the brakes on a killer . . . Now that Kacey Austin has got her new gluten-free dessert truck up and running, there’s no curbing her enthusiasm—not even when someone vandalizes the vehicle and steals her recipes. But when Kacey turns up dead on the beach and Jill’s best friend Sadie becomes the prime suspect, Jill needs to step on it to serve the real killer some just desserts.
My Review
A special thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Lynn Cahoon returns with another cozy and witty mystery--#6 Tourist Trap Mystery MURDER ON WHEELS, with a new business “Good for You Desserts” --a gluten-free dessert truck; a hippie "mobile like look" from the seventies, turns deadly. An array of eccentric small town characters, a scavenger hunt, and a whodunit cozy murder mystery, keeping fans coming back for more. True to form, the supporting characters in Lynn’s cozy mysteries are often very broadly drawn and used as comic relief. In this long-running humorous cozy mystery series, Jill is at the center as the witty feisty sleuth, with the hot detective boyfriend Greg—trouble seems to follow her, like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. I guess aunt Jackie is Jill's side kick, as Lula's is Stephanie's partner in crime, and Jill's hottie is Greg like Plum's cop boyfriend, Joe Morelli. Now, all we need is a Grandma Mazur, to complete the cast. Similar to Evanovich's Plum Series, you gotta keep reading Cahoon's Tourist Trap Mysteries--compulsively addictive! As the book opens, Jill Gardner, and boyfriend/detective hunk, Greg King, along with friends, Justin and Amy are on a big scavenger hunt. Justin had talked them into a new activity for their monthly double date. Geocaching. They go out into the woods, hide an object, and then post the GPS coordinates with a list of clues for others to find the item. Then apparently you post on the website that you “found” the spot (without spoilers), take something from the cache, and leave something for the next explorer. Jill Gardner,bookstore and coffee shop owner is now a mad geocacher, as part of The Coastal Geocache Club. Some even homeschooler families use the hobby to teach geography principles. Austin’s (Austin’s Bike Shop) latest love is the computer guru Kacey, and they are opening a dessert truck (all gluten-free) due to her food allergies. Jill likes to get the inside scoop from Greg, and now it appears someone has vandalized the food truck and trashed the insides and has stolen all her recipes. The only woman who would want Kacey’s recipes was the woman from whom they were stolen originally. It couldn’t be Sadie? Now worse, Kacey has been murdered.
Guess who is on the case? (unofficially, of course).
From adorable golden retriever, Emma, some chocolate delights, and of course the continued warnings from Greg to Jill to stay out of the investigation (she has already started her own murder investigation notebook, before he gets the words out of his mouth), and the rest of the South Cove gang, with a little breaking and entering and some sleuthing…Never a dull moment. Always trouble brewing. Jill needs to hang out her PI license in addition to the coffee/book store.
A proper "Sleuth" needs to be intelligent, witty, and always a few steps ahead others. Jill is all of the above.
The detectives in cozy mysteries, such as Tourist Trap, are left free to eavesdrop, gather clues, and use their intuitive "feel" for the social dynamics of the community to solve the crime. Having read all six books in the series, each can be read as a standalone; however, in order to keep up with the characters and their history-- much more fun to start from the beginning and add to the collection. A sneak preview at the previous five mysteries, for a little more temptation. BTW a new store opening across the street next to The Glass Slipper—a china shop Teattee. #7 Tea Cups and Carnage (Available June 7, 2016). Who will be murdered next?
Review Links:
Praise for The Tourist Trap Mysteries "Murder, dirty politics, pirate lore, and a hot police detective: Guidebook to Murder has it all! A cozy lover’s dream come true." —Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mysteries "Lynn Cahoon has created an absorbing, good fun mystery in Mission to Murder." —Fresh Fiction
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Lynn Cahoon is an Idaho expat. She grew up living the small town life she now loves to write about. Currently, she's living with her husband and two fur babies in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander. Guidebook to Murder, Book 1 of the Tourist Trap series won the 2015 Reader's Crown award for Mystery Fiction. Read More
