Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I Scream, You Scream by Wendy Lyn Watson Book Review

I Scream, You Scream (A Mystery a La Mode, #1) I Scream, You Scream by Wendy Lyn Watson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tallulah Jones is newly divorced and struggling to keep her fledging ice cream parlor, Remember the A-la-mode off the ground.  Unfortunately, part of keeping her business solvent means agreeing to cater the dessert for her ex-husband Wayne's annual Weed & Seed party.  This year the party is to have a luau theme, and Wayne wants bright neon green, his business theme color, to be featured in the ice cream desserts.  Tally can manage to whip up a green topping for some tropical sundaes, carefully keeping Wayne's dessert cups specially marked, due to his pineapple allergy.

It grates that Wayne seems to have a new, much younger thin girlfriend, Brittanie who seems to be his new "sugar".  As Tally dishes up dessert at the party, folks seem drunker than skunks and the night ends with a stressful confrontation with Brittanie.

The next morning, Brittanie is found dead in bed, and it doesn't seem to be of entirely natural causes.  The police have their sights set on Wayne, but even though Tally knows Wayne Jones to be a two-timing snake, she just can't believe he is capable of murder.  Wayne won't come clear about where he was the night Brittanie died, and asks Tally to alibi him.  Tally won't lie for her ex, but she does agree to poke around a bit.

It seems plenty of folks have reason to want to kill Brittanie.  She seems to have slept with half the men and several of the women of Dalliance and made enemies of her fellow Zeta sorority sisters.  Even chipper Lady Shapers guide Ashley seems to have been snubbed by Brittanie.  Later, evidence turns up that there was antifreeze in the dessert cups marked for Wayne--the same dessert cups Tally served at the luau, and suddenly, the police seem to be focusing undue attention on her. 

With her cousin Bree and niece Alice at her side as well as Tally's newly arrived ex-boyfriend from high school, she seeks to clear her name before she ends up in jail for a crime she did not commit.  Can Tally keep her good name and her ice cream business afloat?

This is the first book in the Mystery A La Mode series, and on the whole I enjoyed it.  I found the action well-paced and did enjoy the culinary aspects related to ice cream.  I'd give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

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