Wednesday, May 9, 2018

In Cold Chocolate (A Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery #3)

Author:  Dorothy St. James
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781683317432
Crooked Lane Books
263 Pages
September 11, 2018

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The vintage seaside town of Camellia Beach, South Carolina seems like the perfect place for romance with its quiet beach and its decadent chocolate shop that serves the world's richest dark chocolates.  The Chocolate Box's owner, Charity Penn, falls even further under the island's moonlit spell as she joins Althea Bays and the rest of the turtle watch team to witness a new generation of baby sea turtles hatch and make their way into the wide ocean.

Before the babies arrive, gunshots ring out in the night.  Cassidy Jones, the local Casanova, is found dead in the sand with his lover Jody Dalton - the same woman who has vowed to destroy the Chocolate Box - holding the gun.  It's an obvious crime of passion, or so everyone believes.  But when Jody's young son pleads with Penn to bring his mother back to him, she can't say no.  She dives headfirst into a chocolate swirl of truth and lies, and must pick through an assortment of likely )and sometimes unsavory) suspects before it's too late for Penn and for those she loves.

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Charity Penn, known as simply Penn, owns a building that also house her custom chocolate shop, both deeded to her by her grandmother, Mabel.  While she never knew of her family growing up, Mabel's children aren't happy with the decision - they don't want the shop but want to sell the building - Penn is sticking to her guns and refusing to cave, keeping the shop open.

One night she's with her friend Althea on the beach ready to watch sea turtles hatch.  While she's not on the team, she's being allowed as an observer.  When Althea leaves for an errand, Jody Dalton, her attorney Harley's ex-wife and the bane of her existence, shows up.  Jody isn't supposed to be there, having been kicked off the team, and is raring for a fight.  When she sees lights on at a house down the beach, (all lights need to be off for the hatching) she pulls out a gun and tells everyone she'll take care of it.  While Penn is horrified, she later hears shots and a woman scream.

When she and others arrive at the scene, Jody is holding two guns and standing over the body of Cassidy Jones, a realtor who wants to buy Penn's building and Jody's paramour.  Then Jody shoots Penn in the shoulder (a graze, and, she claims, accidentally).  Soon Jody is in police custody for murder.

But the next day Jody and Harley's son Gavin begs Penn to find a killer, telling her he knows his mom couldn't kill anyone.  Harley doesn't really agree, and neither does anyone else.  Jody is a nasty piece of work and makes everyone around her miserable, but Penn can't resist Gavin and agrees to help.

There's also the fact that not only is someone stealing her new chocolate turtles - all of them - and the eggs of the sea turtles.  While these two things can't possibly be connected, Penn isn't sure.  At least until she starts getting threatening messages - enough to make her stop asking questions.

When she starts looking, however, she finds nearly everyone had a reason to hate Cassidy and want him dead.  But did Jody do the deed, or is she just a convenient scapegoat?  And will asking questions put Penn in harm's way?  But when she's still being threatened, Penn starts up her investigation again because she decides that there must be a reason why, and she's determined to find out what it is...

I really enjoyed this book.  I felt the plot was done well, and there was enough going on around Penn that her focus wasn't completely on the murder, so we had a few nice subplots as well.  Enough to form the opinion that her biological family is a nightmare, and the people she's surrounded herself with in Camellia are true friends (except for the aforementioned Jody, who isn't anyone's friend I would imagine).

Anyway, while I figured out the killer early on (I read a lot of these, so my Spidey senses are honed) it didn't detract one whit from the pleasure.  While I haven't as yet read the first two in this series, I certainly plan on doing so.  Ms. St. James has given us likable characters (mostly) and I find it interesting that two very different people as Althea and Penn have grown to become great friends.  While I lean more toward the tendencies of Althea in real life (believe in ghosts and magic, but not too 'woo-woo'), I can see how she is drawn toward Penn, who appears to be a damaged soul deeply in need of love surrounding her, and the residents (well, not all) seem to be doing their best to fill that void.  They are an eclectic bunch, and I like them.

The setting of Camellia Beach seems like a perfect place for a vacation during hatching season.  I would love to watch sea turtles hatch, but I imagine it's not something that's widely advertised; and I most likely would find my way to Penn's chocolate shop before I even checked into a hotel.

When all is said and done, this was a very good read indeed, and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Chocolate-Southern-Shop-Mystery/dp/1683317432/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2386896123

More on Dorothy St. James's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/dorothy-st-james/

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