Jeanne Reviews: The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen

Riley Rhodes has come back to her old hometown of Penniman, CT to attend the funeral of her friend Caroline’s mother, Buzzy.  Buzzy was one of those larger than life characters who owned the Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop and was beloved by the community, and not just for the wonderful ice cream she created.  Unfortunately, Caroline and her brother, Mike, are at odds over what to do about Buzzy’s shop and the farm: Caroline wants to try to keep it going, despite having a job out of town, and Mike is ready to sell the place as a site for an upscale development. In the absence of a will, the two are going to have to sort it out between them.

Then Mike is murdered and Caroline becomes the prime suspect.

Riley is not about to let her friend be railroaded into a jail cell so she decides to try and clear Caroline’s name and keep the shop open in the meantime. After all, Riley is a librarian—a CIA librarian who has done some side jobs for her employers that have taken her out of the book stacks and onto the streets of foreign countries.

This is a first in series book that drew me in from the start.  The characters and setting are both well developed.  While certainly not an agent, Riley’s job at the CIA has helped her hone her investigative skills. Not enough that she didn’t make a mistake and botch an operation in Italy, which is why she’s on leave from her job, but she still has more experience than the usual cozy mystery heroine.

The plot was well done; there is a nice assortment of suspects and motives.  I never felt that the story lagged as some first in series books do because the author is so busy introducing characters and giving the reader a sense of local color. The characters are better developed than some: even Riley’s disliked stepmother is more of a rounded character than is usually found in a cozy.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I’ll be checking the local bookstore come July in search of the second book in the series, Chocolate Mint Murder.