Rhythm and Clues by Olivia Blacke Series: Record Shop Mystery #3
Published by St Martin's Paperbacks on March 26, 2024
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
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The rhythm is gonna get you.
It’s been five whole months since the last murder in Cedar River, Texas, and Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie have been humming along when disaster strikes again.
Their struggling vinyl records shop/coffee nook, Sip & Spin Records, is under pressure from predatory investors, though the Jessup sisters aren’t ready to face the music and admit defeat. But the night after their meeting, the sketchy financier is killed outside their shop during a torrential Texas thunderstorm that washes out all the roads in and out of town. Now the sisters find themselves trapped in Cedar River with a killer, and Juni is determined to solve the case.
When the river spits out an unexpected surprise, Detective Beau Russell asks for Juni’s help, never predicting her investigation will spin her into danger. Up until now, the Jessup sisters have been playing it by ear, but with the whole town watching, can they catch a killer before he strikes again?
Rhythm and Clues is the third Record Shop Mystery, featuring sisters Tansey, Maggie, and Juni, owners of Sip and Spin Records, a coffee and record shop in a small town near Austin, Texas. The shop is barely making a profit, but the sisters have been approached by a potential investor. The investor, Zach, and his partner invite Juni and Beau, a local cop to a hockey game, but later that night, Zach is killed during a major storm, found dead in a car that wrecked outside of the record shop. Juni, of course, can’t help getting involved in the case.
I enjoy spending time with Juni and her sisters. They each have their own personalities and they work together well.
The setup worked well. The storm flooded parts of town, made some roads impassable, and knocked out the power. The killer is stuck in town. Juni has several suspects, with clues that point in different directions. The plot flows well and the solution fits the characters.
The writing can be a bit clunky at times. Each time a character is introduced, we are told they’re black, white, or Hispanic (and those are the only choices), what they’re wearing, what their hair looks like, and usually whether they’re skinny, in shape, or overweight. Each time. The writer needs to add some variety or just not make her formula for character descriptions so obvious. I also hate the love triangle, even though it is resolved in this book.
Overall, the fun parts of this series outweigh the annoyances. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.
About Olivia Blacke
Olivia Blacke (she/her), author of the Record Shop Mysteries, beginning with Vinyl Resting Place, and the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries (Killer Content and No Memes of Escape), finally found a way to put her criminology degree to good use by writing quirky, unconventional, character-driven cozy mysteries. Olivia is a little nerdy, a lot awkward, and just the right amount of weird. She is a recovering ex-Texan who resides with her husband, Potassium, and Baileycakes, their roly-poly rescue puggle. When not writing, reading, or spending way too much time on social media, Olivia enjoys amigurumi crochet, scuba diving, collecting tattoos, watching hockey, and baking dog cookies. She wants to be a unicorn when she grows up.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Glad to see I’m not the only one who finds the author’s writing clunky.