The Pint of No Return ( A Sloan Krause Mystery #2)

Author:  Ellie Alexander
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781250108654
Minotaur Publishing
304 Pages
$26.99; $13.99 Amazon
October 2, 2018

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No other festival compares to Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, Washington.  The whole town is buzzing with excitement over this year's activities and eagerly awaiting Nitro's latest offering Cherrywizen, made with locally sourced cherries.  But local brewmaster Sloan Krause is tapped out.  Between trying to manage the pub, her pending divorce with Mac, and her mounting feelings for Garrett, she's fermenting in internal turmoil.

To complicate matters, dreamy movie star Mitchell Morgan and his production crew have arrived in the village to film during the authentic, Bavarian brewfest.  Mitchell has his eye on Sloan and a taste for Nitro's Cherrywizen.  Sloan escapes his advances for good when she finds Mitchell slumped over the bar.  Is this a case of one pint too many, or has Mitchell been murdered by microbrew?

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Sloan Krause is settling into her new job as a brewmaster for Garrett Strong, who owns Nitro, a nanobrewery that's new in town.  It's Oktoberfest, and they're excited about the business it will bring in.  They also soon discover that there's a film crew in town doing a documentary on breweries, and they want to feature Sloan, as a groundbreaking female brewmaster.  She agrees, thinking the exposure will be good for Nitro.

But once she sees the emcee of the documentary - Mitchell Morgan - she tries to distance herself.  He's an egomaniac and a jerk who delights in making everyone around him miserable.  But it's no fun when she comes across his body one evening with a broken growler from Nitro nearby.  While Sloan isn't considered a suspect, she knows that April Ablin, a town realtor and self-proclaimed "town representative" and Mitchell got the growler before they left the bar.

Still, there's a girl who shows up at the scene named Kat who accuses Sloan's friend Lisa of the murder but Sloan can't believe Lisa capable.  But what does she really know about Kat?  Not much; but she and Garrett hire her anyway on the off chance that she's telling the truth that she's stranded and has nowhere else to go.

With all of this, her soon-to-be ex-husband Mac is striving to get her back and it seems will go to any lengths to do so, including putting himself right where Sloan doesn't want him to be.  Now with a murderer on the loose, and Sloan wondering about Lisa and Kat, can she help track a killer before anyone else is in danger?  Or has she already gotten too close and the killer has their sights set on her?...

I liked this book better than the first, although there were a couple of things that bothered me.  One is how April said how she's going to make it a bylaw that everyone in town has to wear traditional German outfits - with the men in lederhosen and the women wearing dirndl dresses.  Um, no.  You can't force a private business to do what you want them to.  She can't force them to decorate their interior the way she wants, nor can she force a dress code on them.  Anyway, I can't see anyone in town being stupid enough to want to walk around in lederhosen all the time.  I wouldn't call her a nemesis, as Sloan does, I'd call her a complete moron.

Also, since when do bars (and a brewery is a bar) serve meat and cheese trays?  As I've stated before, I eat at breweries (Las Vegas has great food anywhere you go) but their menus consist of food that actually go well with beer:  burgers, pizza, sandwiches, wings, etc.  Never have I seen any - even in towns I've visited with friends - meat and cheese trays.  I would guess people who drink beer don't say, "hey, you know what I'd like right now?  A meat and cheese tray!"  Just a thought...

Also, it's fine to think of Mac's family as her own, but eventually she'll go onto another relationship, (hopefully with Garrett) and so will Mac as one can hope; since he cheated on her and she forgave him he pretty much got away with it, so he'll do it again if she takes him back.  What happens then?  Are they going to leave their respective spouses to go 'have a family day?'  Or bring them with?  That would be an uncomfortable scenario, and I can't even imagine my husband doing something like that if he had a previous spouse.  I wouldn't be happy about it.  She needs to think about who's been there for her every time she needed someone, and it wasn't Mac.  Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying cutting ties because of her son Alex (whom I like very much) and who deserves to be around his relatives, but if she spends too much time with them it's less likely she'll be able to forge a new relationship.

Aside from these things (sorry, I'm big on details) this was definitely a step up from the first in the series, although that one wasn't bad at all.  I liked the mystery much better in this one; there were plenty of suspects to sift through, and a few clues here and there.  Everything had a nice continuity and made it an easy read.

We're getting to know the characters a little bit more each time and that's always a good thing; there was enough characterization to keep things going.  While we didn't get a lot of insight on the town businesses and people this time - it was Oktoberfest, after all, and that took center stage - still there was a little more information on the brewing process as there was in the last book, which was interesting.

There was also a nice subplot on Sloan's origins which I imagine will be expanded on in future books, and also her feelings for Garrett are beginning to grow; he obviously cares about Sloan and I look forward to seeing how their relationship progresses.

In the end, there were enough twists and turns to keep everything moving along nicely, and when the murderer was unmasked, it came as a surprise, which is a good thing.  I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next in the series.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Pint-Return-Sloan-Krause-Mystery/dp/1250108659/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2437895573

More on Ellie Alexander's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/ellie-alexander/

Death on Tap (A Sloan Krause Mystery #1)

Author:  Ellie Alexander
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover;  Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781250108630;
Minotaur Books
320 Pages
$16.21; $13.99 Amazon
October 3, 2017

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Sloan Krause has spent her life in Leavenworth, Washington, honing her brewing skills as the region's first female brewmaster - everyone in town agrees that she's got a nose for hops and a real talent for concocting delicious microbrews.  Ever since marrying into the Krause family and joining the cheery brewhaus they've owned for generations, she's had big plans to expand the family business by creating new, handcrafted German ales.  But when Sloan walks in on her husband, Mac, shagging the barmaid, she knows it's time to give him the boot.

With this recent, particularly unpleasant, turn of events, she decides to strike out on her own and take her brewing talents elsewhere.  Luckily, Nitro, the hip new nanobrewery in the Bavarian-themed town, sees her potential and hires her on the spot to help craft Northwest-inspired ales and to whip up a tasty new bar menu.  Nitro's owner, Garrett Strong, has the brew world abuzz with his newest recipe, Pucker-Up IPA.  His watering hole is the new cool place in town, and Mac can't help being green with envy at their success.

But just as Sloan is settling into her new gig she finds one of Nitro's competitors dead in a fermenting tank, clutching the secret recipe for the IPA.  When Mac is arrested, Sloan knows her her ex might be a cheater, but a murderer?  No way.  Danger is brewing in Beervaria and suddenly Sloan is on the case.

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Sloan Krause is a brewmaster at her husband's family's brewery, Der Keller.  On a day off, she decides to work anyway, and walks in on her husband while he's having sex with the new waitress.  She leaves and immediately throws him out of their home, then finds a new job at a rival brewery that has just started up.  Garrett Strong is a quiet man who keeps his cards close to his chest, but after tasting his new brew, Sloan realizes he knows what he's doing.

She's fairly happy in her new position, helping him with the menu and anything else that needs to be done.  But when they finally open for business, a rival brewmaster, Eddie, who is surly by nature seems even more so this evening, and it doesn't help that when Sloan arrives the next day she finds Eddie's body in one of the vats.

Seeing as how her husband's prints were on the vat, and his lighter was found near the body, he's arrested for the murder.  But Sloan knows that even though he cheated on her, he's no murderer, and she's decided to try and find out who might have wanted the rival brewmaster dead.  If she doesn't, Mac will be railroaded for the crime, and leave her son without a father, which she isn't willing to do...

First off, even though the blurb states it, Eddie was not found with the recipe in his hand.  In fact, that tidbit - where it was found and by whom it was taken - wasn't even mentioned until much later in the book.  Just getting it straight.

Anyway, this book was fine for a first effort, but I found a few things that bothered me.  All Sloan does is drink beer, but no mention is made that she even has any kind of a "beer belly."  Not even a little "pooch."  People who drink beer constantly - and she doesn't go to a gym to work out - would have some physical traits if they didn't do something about it.  She drinks a lot of beer.  In fact, that's all anyone drinks in this town.  She gets stressed, someone hands her a pint of beer.  There's a lot of stress in her life.  Point made.  She mentions once that her husband Mac is starting to get a belly, but never even mentions anything about herself - even though we never see Mac take a drink.

Secondly, she makes food for Nitro but I have issues with that.  She pulls chicken out of her fridge and cooks kebabs - for how many people?  A hundred?  Two?  How many chicken breasts did she have in there?  40 or 50?  Because ten or so kebabs is not going to feed all the people that showed up for opening night.  And it would take a long time to cook for that many people than what she supposedly did.  (Who keeps that much food at home, anyway, on the off chance they might have to cook for that many people?)

Plus, she only makes things with beer.  Who eats cupcakes, shortbread, and brownies made with beer?  And since when are they served at a brewery?  Personally, I don't drink, but I eat at a brewery or two in town, and they've never had common desserts like that at a bar.  Who would buy a cupcake or cookies at a bar?  This didn't ring true.  Maybe a fancy chocolate cake (three layers, heavy frosting) or a streudel (which would be more in line with a brewery) but not shortbread.  Never shortbread - unless the breweries of Washington have no imagination and the diners are willing to pay $5 for a brownie.  I don't see it.  (Or maybe I just eat at upscale breweries that don't serve food you can buy at any convenience store in town).

I also see that we're probably at the beginning of (ho hum) another love triangle.  Her husband cheated on her; and since she forgave him, he'll probably do it again.  The best she can do is cut her losses and tell him goodbye.  Honestly, I abhor love triangles, and if it goes that way in the second book, I am done with the series - especially since he cheated on her.  Honestly, I am so tired of books that have love triangles.  In real life, women don't usually have two boyfriends hanging around; and if the situation were reversed and this were a man with two women, you'd think him no better than a gigolo.  Garrett is obviously the better man - look at what he did when she was at the hospital.

The book was a light on the mystery and heavy on brewing information.  The brewing information wasn't boring, I'm not saying that at all; but I didn't think the mystery was all that interesting.  Yes, we had a dead body, and yes, we were finding out who wanted to commit the crime, but I didn't see that any of the suspects had a real reason to kill him.  Just breaking up with someone isn't enough to want them dead, in my book.  Any there was no real investigation going on by anyone.

Most of the book was on Sloan trying to help get Garrett's business off the ground, and worrying about Mac's family and how they were dealing with things.  It was okay, but not engrossing in any way.  They aren't that interesting of a family.  The parents are lovable, I get it; but they handled the brewery long before Sloan arrived and she should allow them the benefit of the doubt.  The book wasn't supposed to be about Mac's family, but that's what I felt it was about.

Anyway, it was fine for a first in the series book, but not anywhere near the I-can't-wait-to-read-the-next-in-the-series feeling I like to get from a book.  However, I will read the second and see if it improves at all...or if we have, as I said, a love triangle - which will end the series for me.   

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Tap-Mystery-Sloan-Krause/dp/1250108632/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2435515649

More on Ellie Alexander's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/ellie-alexander/