A Game of Cones by Abby Collette Narrator: Chandra Skyye
Series: Ice Cream Parlor Mystery #2
Published by Tantor Media on March 2, 2021
Source: Library
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 8 hrs 16 mins
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
Add on Goodreads
n this charming mystery series set in an ice cream shop, no case is too cold to crack!
Bronwyn Crewse is delighted that Crewse Creamery, the ice cream shop her family has owned for decades, is restored to its former glory and serving sweet frozen treats to happy customers in the picturesque small town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. But when a big city developer comes to town intent on building a mall, a killer with a frozen heart takes him out.
After literally stumbling across the body, one of Win's closest friends becomes the prime suspect, and to make things worse, Win's aunt has come to town with the intention of taking command of Crewse Creamery. Even though Win has a rocky road ahead to help her friend and keep her ice cream shop, it'll take more than a sprinkle of murder to stop her from solving the crime and saving the day.
I really want to like the Ice Cream Parlor series. Our main character, Wyn, runs an ice cream shop in northern Ohio and has a great family and supportive, if quirky, friends. This time she’s dragged into the mystery when a friend/ former co-worker from New York comes to town to see her and ends up being a suspect in a murder investigation.
A lot is going on in this one. There were a bunch of suspects since the dead man worked for a company proposing to open a mall in the town, which would totally change the nature of the downtown area – not for the better. Rory is in town to try to convince Wyn to come back to her old company in New York. Aunt Jack is back and trying to stick her nose into how the shop is run.
The solution to the mystery was well done, even if getting there was a little meandering. I think my problem is I don’t really like the characters. Wyn is a bit bland and judgemental of her friends. I would love to try her ice cream though. Maisie is all over the place, both in her theories and in her life. Rya actually throws her shoe at a speaker at a meeting. At least it was from the library.
About Abby Collette
Wall Street Journal bestselling author Abby Collette loves a good mystery. She was born and raised in Cleveland, and it’s a mystery even to her why she hasn’t yet moved to a warmer place. As Abby Collette, she is the author of the Ice Cream Parlor Mystery series, about a millennial MBA-holding granddaughter running a family-owned ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and the Books & Biscuits Mystery series, starring a set of fraternal twins who reunite and open a bookstore and soul food café. Writing as Abby L. Vandiver, she is the author of the Logan Dickerson Mysteries, featuring a second-generation archaeologist and a nonagenarian, as well as the Romaine Wilder Mysteries, pairing an East Texas medical examiner and her feisty, funeral-home-owning auntie as sleuths. Abby spends her time writing, facilitating writing workshops at local libraries, and hanging out with her grandchildren, each of whom are her favorite.
It’s hard to like a series when you don’t like any of the characters.
For me, that’s especially true with a cozy mystery. There’s not much to them to begin with so I need to like the characters and the people around them.
I gave the first one a try and stopped there. Sounds like I’m not missing much by not continuing on. Like you, I want to like this series, but it just doesn’t quite work for me.
Yeah, you’re not missing anything. I’m glad I borrowed it from the library and didn’t buy it.
Loving the title, but then I’m always a sucker for a good pun. That you didn’t like any of the characters is a huge minus but then for me the characters are the thing that make or break a book.
I love cozy mystery titles. They can just be so fun.
I need to like a character, especially when it comes to a cozy mystery.