* * * 1/2
Everyone has secrets…even a pastor.
Life had been back to normal in Sweet Grove, with smoothie sales up and murders down to zero. With Gran’s shop doing well, Belle helps her best friend by tending bar at the Honey Buckle whenever needed. Belle tries her best to like Pastor Luke, who she’s been dating for the last few weeks, but when she finds out he’s been less than genuine, things end badly. Their break-up is epic gossip all around the small town.
When the pastor turns up dead, people rush to suspect her. Apparently, their fight about her spending so much time in a bar was overheard. Belle knows she didn’t do it, but who would kill a pastor? Who else would have a motive? With the handsome but romantically complicated sheriff asking her a lot of questions, Belle decides she needs to get to the bottom of it ASAP.
This had better be the last murder in Sweet Grove, or Belle’s amateur sleuthing might become a habit…
Reader advisory: This book contains references to parental abandonment, off-page murder and brief references to domestic abuse and infidelity.
Source: ARC generously provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Oh yeah, am I a sucker for cutesy-titled mysteries which is why I've just read my first C.C. Dragon book.
A lot happens immediately and there are so many characters to keep up with right off the bat. Belle works at the pastry and smoothie shop with her grandmother with whom she's extremely close, and she also tends bar for one of her closest friends. The girl is busy it feels like 24/7. Somewhere in there, she squeezes time to date Pastor Luke. It's a fairly new relationship and only a couple of weeks old before they break up. She has good reasons, too, and I was impressed. She doesn't think anymore of it but when he's found dead a few days later, all eyes go to her because of their recent very public breakup. It's a unique enough case as the murder weapon of choice was a snake. A python to be exact. EWW. The sheriff who is a former love interest believes in her innocence and they work in unison to uncover what happened. As with murder mysteries, the deeper they dig, the more secrets reveal themselves and it seems like the Pastor wasn't as holy as people thought he was.
I'll be honest - all those snakes gave me the heebie jeebies. I kind of wanted to stop reading because I didn't want to have nightmares. My discomfort aside, I was keen to learn who was behind this reptilian horror.
The mystery was a puzzler and by the time the culprit was caught I was stunned. Partly because I didn't see it coming and partly because it's sensitive. Admittedly, I was also thrown off by some other things. I was unaware until after I started that this was book 2, so as think there were some background details missing like descriptions of the town or the people. I'd mentioned before that there are many characters but I didn't pick up on any physical details to create mental images in my reader's mind. The conversations between characters are mostly continuous, flowing from one to the next which is the author's style and I realized that I’m not used to that. It made it challenging to follow and since the story is told in first person, Belle's thoughts felt inaccessible. It would’ve helped me if there were breaks between conversations where Belle shared her inner monologue as she ruminated over new information or provide better context to people in general or connections as she’s helping to solve the crime. There were a couple of occasions when she did that but not enough for me to feel privy to what's on her mind and as a result, she didn't come off as a multi-dimensional character to me, so I didn't feel I got to know her or develop a connection to the town or other characters.
Now I say all this while recognizing that the background I’m seeking could all be in the first book and perhaps I shouldn't have read this as a standalone. The author's style is also different from what I've been used to reading. So considering all of this, my rating is based purely on my experience jumping into this series by reading book 2 first. I do plan on reading the first book, The Mint Julep Murder at some point so I can get a better feel for C.C. Dragon's writing and the series. In the meantime, I did like Heavenly Hazelnut Murder. Snakes aside (eww again), it was different and kept my attention, and I'm glad to have read a new author. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes small town cozy mysteries, and any mysteries set in the south.
~ Bel
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