Meri Allen’s Fatal Fudge Swirl is the latest in her Ice Cream Shop Mystery series. As the third volume in the series, the book not only represents a run finding its stride but also introduces a decided holiday theme.
The lead, once again, is Riley Rhodes and amateur detective who owns the hun named Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. She also once served as a CIA librarian, losing her position in part thanks to a individual named Paolo. It’s a setup that allows for delicious dessert-related content and beautiful book related content without justification for either beyond the set up.
This volume includes the shop helping to prepare desserts for a wedding with a special Halloween theme, which is appropriate since that is the time of year the whole book takes place. Reference to costumes and motifs happen throughout, and there is an acknowledgment that the couple planning to marry are very much fans of the holiday. Diantha, the bride, is a wealthy woman with a number of children marrying a much younger man, something of a switch from her normal modus operandi.
The mystery largely holds up in this volume, although the trappings and personal drama take a slightly larger role than they do in some series. The literary references are all believable, with a pair of gifted books being understandable in their reference and the reason the lead would consider them precious. Moral ambiguity is given a slightly larger place than in many as a result, with the likes of Arsene Lupin getting referenced
Both of the recipes included at the end are quite nice, albeit extremely redundant. They are two different variations on a hot fudge sauce recipe, one with four ingredients and rather quick to prepare and the other almost twice as many ingredients and a somewhat more complicated process as a result. Both seem like they would be quite delicious, leaving personal taste and difficulties in preparation as the likely deciding factor.
There feels like more continuity in this volume than many such books, with a little less time taken to introduce the secondary cast again in particular. On the other hand the setup and past of the lead are not only addressed, but a secondary through line of this particular volume develops her opinions and status in that regard. Secondary figures, friends and family of the lead, are given their fair share of development even if the starting point is not always clear to breeders from page one.
For anyone looking for a bit of Halloween theming in the middle of summer without looking at horror, this would be an easy read to recommend. Comfortable and fitting well into the genre, Foodies will likely enjoy the descriptions of desserts and literary aficionados the references to beloved works. Easy to recommend for fans of the first pair of books or the author, and worth a read for those fans of cozy Mysteries who are curious. Perhaps not the best place to start the series, but a more than respectable entry into it.
( St Martin’s paperbacks 2023)
