by: Meri Allen
Series: Ice Cream Shop Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: July 27, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
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Justice will be swirled by amateur sleuth Riley Rhodes in the first in Meri Allen's brand-new mystery series!
Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut - land of dairy farms and covered bridges - for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley's trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father's cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. It feels like a time to help her friend Caroline rebuild after her mother's death, and for Riley to do a bit of her own reflecting after a botched undercover mission in Italy. After all, it's always good to be home.
But Caroline and her brother Mike have to decide what to do with the assets they've inherited - the ice cream shop as well as the farm they grew up on - and they've never seen eye to eye. Trouble begins to swirl as Riley is spooked by reports of a stranger camping behind the farm and by the odd behavior of the shop's mascot, Caroline's snooty Persian, Sprinkles. When Mike turns up dead in the barn the morning after the funeral, the peace and quiet of Penniman seems upended for good. Can Riley find the killer before another body gets scooped?
Doing well, thanks. I’ve been busy launching The Rocky Road to Ruin, but right now I’m taking a break with a nice cold margarita sorbet.
That sounds really good. Can you please tell me about yourself?
I’m a former librarian (alas, not at the CIA like my main character, Riley) and love travel, dancing, theater, and trying new restaurants. I’m a native New Englander and live a short walk from a lighthouse on the Connecticut shore, which is lovely until the foghorn goes off.
I have a husband who’s a good sport about the whole crime writer thing, and two daughters who wonder about their mom’s fascination with murder weapons and poisons. I’m a member of Sisters in Crime and have served as their Library Liaison since 2017.
The Rocky Road to Ruin is your first book. Congratulations. What can readers expect from it?
Readers can expect a fun mystery with a lot of twists and turns. I’m a huge fan of Agatha Christie and while I’m writing I often think, “What would Agatha do?” I try to add elements I enjoy in a mystery: An independent, resourceful heroine. A cozy New England setting. Lots of devious suspects. Surprises. Christie said that people are rarely what they seem, and I love writing characters who will surprise my readers. Plus there’s ice cream, lots and lots of delicious ice cream, with recipes at the end of the book.
Please tell me about your protagonist Riley Rhodes.
Thirty-five-year-old Riley Rhodes is devoted to her family and friends, loves running and traveling, and was in the Army until an injury suffered in a helicopter crash led to a medical discharge. She became a librarian, so everyone makes assumptions, and some of them are true – she’s smart and she does love her cardigans. But she’s a librarian for the CIA, and because she loves traveling, she was asked to do occasional undercover work.
When an assignment in Rome went wrong, Riley came home to Penniman and decided to switch gears to help her best friend, Caroline, manage her family ice cream shop. She lives with Caroline in the farmhouse behind the shop with two cats: Sprinkles, a disgruntled former show cat, and Rocky, an all-black rescue. Riley thinks she can finally enjoy some peace and quiet, but trouble – and murder – find her.
Can you tell me a little about some of the secondary characters we’ll see in the book?
I had a lot of fun with the supporting cast at the ice cream shop.
High school musician Brandon Terwilliger is one of my favorites – he drives Riley crazy concocting the most appalling ice cream flavors that somehow become huge sellers because the town’s teenagers dare each other to eat them.
There are two retired sisters, Florence Fairweather and Gerri Fairweather Hunt, a kindergarten teacher and high school principal who are experts in genealogy.
Riley’s dad, Nathaniel Hawthorne Rhodes, who owns The Penniless Reader Bookshop and never met a pun he didn’t like.
Riley’s perfectionist, passive-aggressive stepmother, Paulette.
Riley’s warm hearted best friend, art and antiques expert, Caroline Spooner.
I have the most fun with Tillie O’Malley, the police department secretary and frustrated detective who sees herself as Riley’s partner in crime, much to Riley’s chagrin.
The series takes place in a little town called Penniman, Connecticut. Is this a real place or is it based on a real place?
One of the perks of being a writer is that you can invent your own world.
Like Riley, I love to travel, and especially enjoy exploring back roads and small towns. Penniman is a combination of several charming New England towns but was inspired by the northeast corner of Connecticut, which is sometimes called the Quiet Corner. Believe me, it’s not quiet in this series.
What’s your favorite part of a cozy mystery to write?
Such a good question! I love putting my characters in dangerous situations and seeing how they get out of them. Sorry, Riley!
If Riley was a real person and I could sit down and talk with her, what do you think she would say about you?
Riley would say, say stop putting me in danger!
What she says about me? Riley would say don’t judge a book by its cover. I look like a mild mannered librarian, but I love digging into crime. You should see the search history on my browser. My poor husband had a few sleepless nights when he saw a copy of The Poisoner’s Handbook on my bedside table. But Riley wouldn’t be surprised. She’s a woman who has led her own double life and she’s used to looking under the surface.
Plus we’d get along great – we both have a bad case of wanderlust and she loves books by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Gilman, and Elizabeth Peters as much as I do.
Meri, what’s next for you?
I recently wrapped up Book Two in the Ice Cream Shop series (working title Mint Chocolate Murder) and celebrated by taking a trip to Savannah, GA. I’m diving into writing Book Three and am already planning a trip to celebrate handing that in to my editor next February. Maybe Greece?
Meri, thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions for me.
Thank you so much for inviting me! I enjoyed your interesting questions.
The next morning I rose early and jogged back to the clearing in the cemetery. I picked my way through the headstones, looking for clues, trying to remember which way the camper had run.
I threw my thoughts back to high school, those years before Caroline and I had driver’s licenses, when we’d been content exploring myriad paths in the woods around the farm. The camper had had his choice of escape routes through acres of rolling farmland and forest. Parts of the land on this side of Farm Lane belonged to the Danforths and part to the Fairweathers. I didn’t know where the property lines were. Everyone had coexisted amicably and the families represented in the cemetery had intermarried for years.
The sound of a distant lawnmower accompanied me as I took the path that led to the small pond, scanning the ground as I ran, searching for any trace of the camper. I found nothing and returned to the cemetery. The shade of towering old oaks and massive stands of laurel provided a respite from the gathering heat. Most of the stones in the cemetery were weathered and covered with green lichen, so worn that any names on them were illegible. Except for one.
I picked my way closer to a shiny stone of pink granite in the northernmost corner of the cemetery and shivered as I read the words carved on it: “Brooke Danforth. A Rose Barely Bloomed.” The grave was beautifully tended, the headstone flanked by yellow rose bushes that seemed to hold the stone in a protective embrace. Some daisies had been planted recently, the earth around them loose and dark. I brushed away a leaf that had settled on top of the highly polished granite.
Approaching footsteps made me turn.
"From The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen. Used with the permission of the publisher, St. Martin's Press. Copyright © 2021 by Meri Allen."
I threw my thoughts back to high school, those years before Caroline and I had driver’s licenses, when we’d been content exploring myriad paths in the woods around the farm. The camper had had his choice of escape routes through acres of rolling farmland and forest. Parts of the land on this side of Farm Lane belonged to the Danforths and part to the Fairweathers. I didn’t know where the property lines were. Everyone had coexisted amicably and the families represented in the cemetery had intermarried for years.
The sound of a distant lawnmower accompanied me as I took the path that led to the small pond, scanning the ground as I ran, searching for any trace of the camper. I found nothing and returned to the cemetery. The shade of towering old oaks and massive stands of laurel provided a respite from the gathering heat. Most of the stones in the cemetery were weathered and covered with green lichen, so worn that any names on them were illegible. Except for one.
I picked my way closer to a shiny stone of pink granite in the northernmost corner of the cemetery and shivered as I read the words carved on it: “Brooke Danforth. A Rose Barely Bloomed.” The grave was beautifully tended, the headstone flanked by yellow rose bushes that seemed to hold the stone in a protective embrace. Some daisies had been planted recently, the earth around them loose and dark. I brushed away a leaf that had settled on top of the highly polished granite.
Approaching footsteps made me turn.
"From The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen. Used with the permission of the publisher, St. Martin's Press. Copyright © 2021 by Meri Allen."
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MERI ALLEN lives in a quiet corner of Connecticut, where she haunts libraries, used book stores, and vintage shops. The next in the Ice Cream Shop series, MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER and will release Summer 2022.
Places to find Meri Allen:
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Thank you so much for having me, Kim! You ask really terrific questions. xo Meri
ReplyDeleteYou are VERY welcome. Congratulations again on the release. The story sounds really good.
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