Shake Shop #3
Dana Mentink’s Shake Shop series is joined by her latest addition: Spoon to be Dead. Trinidad Jones, owner of the Shimmy and Shake ice-cream shop, is facing every ice-cream shop’s biggest obstacle: winter. It’s hard to tempt people with an icy treat in the middle of a blizzard, no matter how tasty. While her business partner Juliette has a much more optimistic attitude, Trinidad fears the failure of her shop might be just around the corner. Given that she came to Sprocket, Oregon to set up a new and better life for herself and her Papa, she is finding the risk of closing almost unbearable. Luckily, she comes up with some less frosty options to try and float her business through the cold, including catering deserts at an event on a local steamboat. While worried, Trinidad is more than ready to face the challenges. With her Papa, her newfound boyfriend Quinn, found sisters (and fellow ex-wives of one Gabe Bigley) Juliet and Bonnie, she has enough confidence to come up with plenty of shop-saving ideas – then the unthinkable happens. The notorious ex-husband Gabe Bigley walks right into their shop and back into all their lives. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he confesses to having possibly killed someone before he passes out and letting the ladies take over.
At first no one wants to think him capable of such a thing, even thinking he might just be acting overly dramatic about something. So Trinidad checks it out, and is horrified to see that whatever happened, someone did in fact come to a tragic end, and Gabe is very much in the middle of it. Things keep looking even grimmer for Gabe as evidence keeps stacking up against him. Even his sister (and chief of police) Cynthia Bigley is fairly sure her brother is going to jail. While there isn’t any lost love between the ex-wife trio and Gabe, Trinidad hates the idea of an innocent man going to jail, and also that it would negatively affect his daughter, whom they all adore. She agrees to poke around to see if she can find anything out that the police might have missed, much to the chagrin of nearly everyone. Except for Gabe. He’s ecstatic that she’s even willing to look into it at all. Given her track record for closing cases, his sister is also ready to help Trinidad move things along, especially since she can’t work the case at all due to the primary suspect being her little brother.
I will say this book had me reaching for a pint of ice cream myself, so readers should beware potential cravings as Dana Mentink describes some truly tempting holiday flavors. I found the ex-wife trio delightful in all aspects, they complement each other and yet each have their own distinct personalities. In many different sit-coms and series, the ex-spouses often fall into one of two categories: they are both bitter and angry with their ex-spouse, or they have an amicable split and are even still friends. I was impressed by the balance of the third option displayed in Spoon to be Dead. While there is some bitterness, most of them are more than content to live and let live, as long as the ex doesn’t come and upset their new lives in Sprocket. Juliette is a bit angrier, but her anger once again seems to come from him intruding on the life they were all trying to rebuild far away from him. However, even she has to admit he does not seem the type to kill anyone. Unfortunately, thinking that and proving it are two entirely different matters. Other suspects keep popping up as the steamboat event draws near, and Trinidad has her work cut out for her if she hopes to save her ex from wrongful imprisonment. Reading the previous books is not a requirement to enjoy Spoon to be Dead, but it’ll be hard to resist the need to scoop them up after you finish. And maybe also a pint of your favorite ice-cream to curb any reading induced cravings as well. – Carla Schantz