Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781516105434
Lyrical Underground
193 Pages
$14.36; $3.99 Amazon
March 10, 2020
⭐⭐⭐
Tally Holt has poured her heart, soul, and bank account into Tally's Olde Tyme Sweets, specializing in her grandmother's delicious recipes. Tally's homemade Mallomars, Twinkies, fudges, and taffy are a hit with visiting tourists -- and with Yolanda Bella, the flamboyant owner of Bella's Baskets next door. But both shops encounter a sour surprise when local handyman Gene Faust is found dead in Tally's kitchen, stabbed with Yolanda's scissors.
The mayor's adopted son, Gene was a handsome Casanova with a bad habit of borrowing money from the women he wooed. It's a sticky situation for Yolanda, who was one of his marks, there are plenty of other likely culprits among Fredericksburg's female population, and even among Gene's family. But unless Tally can figure out who finally had their fill of Gene's sweet-talking ways, Yolanda -- and both of their fledgling businesses -- may be destined for a bitter end...
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Tally Holt has moved back to Fredericksburg, Texas, where some of her fondest memories lie. Her parents are traveling entertainers, and she's had enough of moving around. She sold her bakery in Austin and moved to be near her best friend, Yolanda Bella. Tally has opened Olde Tyme Sweets, a candy store that creates candies and fudge using her late grandmother's recipes, and luckily, her shop is right next door to Yolanda's flower shop. Everything would be good if it weren't for their handyman, Gene Faust, whom Tally doesn't trust and Yolanda is interest in. But Tally soon finds out that Yolanda isn't the only one Gene has been leading on, and that includes her own young employees, Andrea and Mart.
Things go downhill when the shop is full and Gene is working in the back trying to fix Tally's refrigerator. Eventually Tally closes her shop but finds a surprise -- the body of Gene, who's definitely been murdered. Now Tally's wondering who had the chance to kill him and who wanted him dead more than anyone else -- all she knows is it couldn't have been Yolanda, and she's working to find a killer. The only good part of this is her brother Cole, who showed up unexpectedly and somehow got tangled in a murder investigation himself...
This is the first book in the series and I wanted to read it because my son lives in Fredericksburg, and part of my family resides in Texas. The bad first: unfortunately, it didn't give me that feeling of "being there." While there were references to Fredericksburg being wine country and the tourist shops, and included a couple of the names, there wasn't much of a description of the surrounding area. The addition of Yolanda living in a Sunday house gave the book charm, and I'm hoping there will be more of the restaurants and description of the area in the next book. (FYI, I've been to Fredericksburg in June -- it does rain, and it comes down heavy!)
Saying that, I enjoyed this book enough to want to read the second one, if for no other reason than to see if there is any character development. Tally and Yolanda shouldn't be out on their own if they're having that many problems owning businesses; perhaps they might want to think about taking on partners. It also might be nice that if this is a series about a candy shop, then Tally spends some time making candies there. Once in the morning isn't going to keep a shop thriving in a tourist town. She'll run out of her treats fast. Maybe she should hire an assistant candy maker to help.
The plot was interesting and kept me guessing through a main part of it, but I did discern the murderer well before Tally, although that might be due to the fact that I didn't have as many people to sift through as she did, and I also read a lot of mysteries.
At first it bothered me that the action was sifting between Tally's and Yolanda's point of view, considering I've rarely read books that do that. While I prefer a book to be from the POV of the protagonist only, this wasn't too disconcerting. It was just odd, considering Tally was the main character and Yolanda secondary, and she wasn't all that interesting to begin with. Perhaps in the next book she'll actually grow somewhat.
It also bothered me that Yolanda played with her hair like a teenager. What woman in her thirties curls her hair around her fingers and 'flips her hair' like a teen? That seemed immature. I also didn't understand why Tally, who had a successful business in Austin, couldn't balance her own books and hired people without completely vetting them. Why she left her shop in the care of only one employee also seemed odd. No wonder money was missing. I also found that it wasn't believable that when the murder occurred everyone in the shop was allowed to leave, and the police didn't do a thorough search. Sometimes it takes days to release a crime scene; but Tally was allowed to open the next morning.
Tally, for her part, is doing her best to make a life for herself and seems to be on the right track. It's obvious she loves her brother; I actually found Cole to be the most interesting character in the book, regardless of his womanizing, since it was apparent he loved Tally and deep down was a gentle soul. That stands for a lot. I even liked the detective investigating. The only thing I didn't care for about Tally was the fact that she was downright asking people what they were doing at the time of the murder. Surely she could come up with more surreptitious ways to ask them without them feeling like they're being interrogated.
When the ending comes and the killer is revealed, as I stated above, it wasn't a surprise, but still the murderer stated the reasons for killing and a warped mind makes their own decisions, while there are people who are driven to do the things they do. It was rather sad all the same.
All in all, it wasn't a bad start to a new series and I will probably read the next to see if it has improved, and hopefully, there will be more descriptions of the town so people can get a 'view in their mind' of what it looks like; and also, hopefully Tally and Yolanda will have grown up and not be acting like they're still in high school.
https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Sweet-Vintage-Sweets-Mysteries/dp/1516105435/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3361474974
More on Kay George's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/kaye-george/
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