A Deadly Inside Scoop, by Abby Collette

Full disclosure, this was a completely random Libby find from the DC Public Library. I was playing some Factorio last Friday, and I wanted something cozy to listen to. I searched “Cozy Mystery” and this was one of my options. I’m a sucker for a good pun (and a good cozy) and this did not disappoint.

The premise is: Bronwyn “Win” Crewse has returned home to Chagrin Falls, Ohio (near Cleveland) with plans to reopen her family’s ice cream shop. Back in the day, the ice cream shop was a pillar of their community, but time and her grandmother’s deteriorating health and eventual death led to the shop’s closing. Win plans to return things to their former glory. As she struggles with the ups and downs of opening an ice cream shop in the midst of an Ohio winter (complete with a lake effect blizzard on opening day), Win stumbles on a dead body down near the falls. When the police start investigating her father as a potential suspect, Win and her friend Maisie begin their own investigation to uncover the real killer and exonerate her father.

If you’re a fan of cozy mysteries, ice cream, or both, you’re going to enjoy this. Win is determined but insecure, having returned home from a successful New York marketing career for health reasons. Her self-confidence isn’t shattered, but it’s shaken. Does she have what it takes to restore the shop? To catch the real killer? Luckily, she’s got a cast of quirky, fun characters to help her along the way. Maisie is an avid fan of British cozy tv, and is convinced of her instincts as an amateur sleuth. Her family is gruff but supportive, her PopPop. Some of her friends double as muscle, some as fonts of wisdom, some as comic relief. In the end, they’re able to bring the reader to a satisfying conclusion.

Parts of this reminded me a bit of VM Burns’ Mystery Bookshop series, which also centered around a prominent black family opening a business. I adore Burns’ writing, and so it’s great to find something similar in another writer. I also enjoyed that it was set in Northeast Ohio (where I grew up) so I got to hear references to some of my old haunts, like the Flats. The characters are fun, the protagonist is easy to root for. There’s also a cat, which is always a plus.

Anyway, definitely recommended. This was a lot of fun.