Review: Spoon to be Dead by Dana Mentink

Spoon to be Dead (Shake Shop #3)
written by Dana Mentink
narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
A murder for the holidays is about to shake things up!

Trinidad Jones is starting the festive season with sugary confections and a heaping scoop of worry as her shake shop enters its first Oregon winter. With snow abound and tourists trickling through, she’ll do anything to keep her milkshake dreams afloat, even if it means catering a holiday steamboat party for some new arrivals in town.

But when her good-for-nothing ex crashes through her shop’s door claiming he’s being charged with murder, things go sideways. With clues piling up like whipped cream on a sundae and motives abound, Trinidad and her fellow ex-wives must solve this murder before she’s finally thrown for a scoop.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really liked the first two books in this series and was so excited the third book got released in audio as well so I could continue the series. Sadly I didn’t enjoy Spoon to be Dead as much as the previous two books, while I loved being back in Sprocket and reading about the familiar characters, the mystery in this one didn’t really grip me and the character related plot lines were too much drama for me.

Let’s start with what I liked about this book. I really liked being back in the small town of Upper Sprocket again and spending time with these characters. I really like reading about Trinidad and the characters surrounding her like her grandfather, her two sisters Bonnie and Juliette, her dog Noodles, Quinn’s brother Dough and her new boyfriend Quinn. The characters are all great and I enjoy reading about them.

The small town setting is fun and I like the vibe of this small town. This book is winter themed and while I thought the summer and autumn themes of the first two books came through better, it was still nice to see Sprocket in a different season. I also liked seeing Trinidad run her ice cream shop and coming up with some ideas to sell things during winter that aren’t ice cream. I liked reading about the choco bombs and the class she organizes as well as her first catering gig aboard the steamboat. The narrator is the same one as the first two books and was great to listen to.

What didn’t work for me was the mystery. The mystery just started off with such a weird set up already with Trinidad’s ex Gabe being back in town and he thinks he killed someone, but he can’t actually remember. His car ran someone over and there was someone else in the car with him, but that person says he left before that. It was just a weird set up. The chief can’t investigate as Gabe is her little brother and he is the main suspect despite his lack of memory. And from there onward the mystery just gets more convoluted. Even when it all came to light it just felt too convoluted to me and I thought the actions of the murderer didn’t really make sense to me and I though it was odd they didn’t do something earlier or handled something differently. The mystery just didn’t grip me and I wasn’t really invested it.

Then besides the mystery there is this whole weird plot line with Bonnie getting married, but the whole situation feels odd and she doesn’t seem excited for it and there is a secret she’s keeping. And only toward the end of the book there is the reason why and again it was twisty, but just not as interesting to me and a simple talk would’ve resolved this much better. I also didn’t like how Bonnie kept it a secret from Trinidad and Juliette as with everything that’s established in the past books it just didn’t feel in-character.

Then there is more drama with the ex Gabe being back in town and the three women have to deal with that and their past with him. And I just didn’t really like the whole ex plot line. Then there is Quinn, Trinidad’s current boyfriend, acting all possessive and jealous and that just didn’t seem to match his personality from previous books. And I just liked them together in book 1 so much and how they teamed up, but in books 2 and 3 it just seemed more drama gets introduced in their romance and I just don’t really care for it.

To summarize: I enjoyed returning to the small town of Upper Sprocket and spending time with these characters. This book is winter themed and I liked seeing Trinidad figure out how to make her ice cream business a success this season. I like the characters and seeing them interact with each other. I sadly didn’t like the mystery in this one, it didn’t grip me and it felt way too convoluted. Then there is some drama with Trinidad’s ex being in town, her current boyfriend acting possessive and Bonnie getting married and not telling her sisters why. It just didn’t feel interesting or completely in-character and I didn’t really like the drama. The narrator was great again and I enjoyed listening to this one. I am just sad it wasn’t as good for me as the first two books.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.