Death by French Roast: 04/19/21

Death by French Roast by Alex Erickson is the eighth in the Bookstore Café mystery series. Krissy's nosy next door neighbor has passed away and in helping her daughter clean up the house for sale, she comes across an old mystery. Her neighbor's brother was murdered when he was dating the then much younger Rita. Krissy decides to investigate and that leads to a modern day murder.

From what Krissy can tell, the original murder stemmed from the town's upset over the age difference. Wade, the dead brother, was significantly older than Rita. But is an age difference enough of a reason to kill a man?

Of the two mysteries, the cold case was fairly straightforward. At least the motive is. What kept me guessing, though, was the modern day murder. With such a gap in time, the question is, who would feel threatened enough to murder again? Also, who would still be physically capable of murder?

I was frankly surprised to see the book start with the funeral for a recurring, comedic foil character. Usually characters like this are there for the long haul — even when they are officially too old to still be alive. Or they are removed from the series by being written as the murderer after books and books of being a laughing stock. But this series is one of those rare ones where time between books seems to match the time between murders on a one to one basis. It's refreshing when so many novels have a narrative gap of a few months between murders.

The next book is Death by Hot Apple Cider. It releases October 26, 2021.

Five stars

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