Synopsis

The tourist town of South Cove, California, is a lovely place to spend the holidays. But this year, shop owner Jill Gardner discovers there’s no place like home for homicide. . .

As owner of Coffee, Books, and More, Jill Gardner looks forward to the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers. But when the mayor ropes her into being liasion for a new work program, ‘tis the season to be wary. Local businesses are afraid the interns will be delinquents, punks, or worse. For Jill, nothing’s worse than Ted Hendricks—the jerk who runs the program. After a few run-ins, Jill’s ready to kill the guy. That, however, turns out to be unnecessary when she finds Ted in his car—dead as a doornail. Detective Greg King assumes it’s a suicide. Jill thinks it’s murder. And if the holidays weren’t stressful enough, a spoiled blonde wants to sue the city for breaking her heel. Jill has to act fast to solve this mess—before the other shoe drops. . .

“Murder, dirty politics, pirate lore, and a hot police detective: Guidebook to Murder has it all! A cozy lover’s dream come true.” —Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mysteries

This has been on my TBR for, well a long time. I wanted to read a little cozy mystery and decided to go with If the Shoe Kills, although it’s the third book in the series, it’s also okay as a standalone read.

I have to say I was smitten with the story, especially with the protagonist Jill Gardner, owner of Coffee, Books, and More. I really enjoyed reading a book with a character that also reads a book every chance she got, just like us book lovers. Hence her opening a book store yeah! I totally want a book store like hers. We even find her crying over a book she’s reading, classic book dragon with a mushy heart. She’s a big Harry Potter fan too. One of her and her Aunt Jackie’s fundraising endeavour is a Book Drive for a Children’s Center, love it.

So here we are in a Coastal California tourist town in South Cove. Jill loves solving mysteries, I mean I think the woman lives to solve mysteries, and when she’s the one to stumble upon a murder, she immediately wants to solve it even though her detective boyfriend warns her to stay away from any investigations going on. Speaking of her boyfriend, he’s the handsome detective Greg King (well you guys can find out more about Mr. Handsome with a big-ass heart for yourself). I love the relationship between these two, it reflects a relationship that can be found in reality. Although the book isn’t about Jill and Greg, it’s still nice to get the little moments with them.

Noteworthy quote mention
“I think any reading is good reading, even if it’s commercial fiction. A good story well told is worth the time.” Jackie had come to the store with the same mindset. She’d wanted to cut the romance section by half and add a larger classics shelf, but when she saw the figures on the actual sales, she changed her mind, fast. Now I even caught her reading the romance category books we carried. Just for research, she claimed.”

Anyway, with the town participating in a Work Back Program with the City, we are introduced to the handsome but rude-ass Ted Hendricks, Director of the program. Giving us quite a few interesting characters throughout the book. Not to mention Mayor Baylor and his bitchy wife Tina.

There are a few twisties to enjoy and quite a few characters to have as your suspects. With Ted being the jerk he was who could it have been that hated him enough to murder him?

This cozy mystery was light and fun, it kept me quite engaged, trying to figure out who the murderer/murderess was, along with all the quirky and interesting characters, was a lot of fun. I recommend this one to all you mystery, cozy mystery lovers out there. Think I’m going to have to check out the rest of the series (I don’t know what’s with me and starting series in the middle or end lately, LOL).

Title: If The Shoe Kills
Author: Lynn Cahoon
Originally Published: November 10, 2014
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Cozy Mystery
Number of Pages: 216

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A Tourist Trap Mystery – Series

These are just some of the other books in the series

Guidebook To Murder
Mission To Murder
If The Shoe Kills
Rockets’ Dead Glare