Record Shop #3
Music, murder, and mayhem await in Olivia Blacke’s Rhythm and Clues. In the true spirit of family business, three sisters have opened and run a record and coffee shop known as the Spin & Sip in Cedar River, Texas. Tansey, Maggie, and Juni Jessup have their own specialties, but are all involved in the daily running on the shop. However, Juni adds a little extra spice to their lives that isn’t just in the pumpkin lattes. She’s a very efficient amateur sleuth with a reputation of successfully solving murders about town. While her sisters would prefer for Juni to keep out of any dangerous situations, when in involves their shop they are very supportive of her sleuthing specialty.
Luckily, Juni has become a bit of a local name at the police station, and the officers there know her and know to keep an eye out for her as well – not only because of her increasingly alarming talent for being around and then solving murders, either. Juni is romantically involved with Detective Beauregard Russell. She also is seeing the local mailman Teddy Garza, but she isn’t officially ‘dating’ either one yet. She is still trying to figure out which one, if either, she should really commit herself to. Luckily for her, they seem content to wait and see how it plays out. This also means she knows the best spots to find Detective Russell whenever she just so happens to bump into a murder, like in the middle of a horrible storm.
Vinyl is back. As it goes, what’s old is new again. Even so, the Spin & Sip shop is facing the struggle of its first year. While this isn’t an unusual situation for new businesses to face, as most fold in their first year, the Spin & Sip is facing a rather unique threat: Investors. Not just any investors, predatory ones with a less than sterling reputation. The Jessup sisters are far from willing to let these two horn in on their business, but fear of an uncertain future forces them to at least LISTEN to their offer. Even though Juni is sure she and her sisters are in agreement about telling the investors to eat dirt, no one was expecting the deal to fall through because of death. Specifically, the death of the main investor during a horrible storm just after trying to convince Juni to change her mind. If that isn’t bad enough, the storm blocks off all major roads and takes down all cell communication. What could be worse than being stuck in a small town with a killer? Being stuck in one with no way to reach authorities. Or, maybe, having one staying in your back yard. Or both at once. Definitely having to deal with both.
Given the close proximity of the shop to the incident, the fact that a suspect is now staying in their backyard, and that with power down there isn’t much Spin & Sip work that CAN be done, Juni is on the case. Her sisters aren’t thrilled, but they do want it solved so that their houseguest can depart sooner, and Detective Russell is more than glad for the help given how busy the force is with all the storm based emergencies about town. So long as she’s careful and keeps the authorities in the loop with whatever she finds, that is.
While Rhythm and Clues is Olivia Blacke’s third book in her Record Shop Mysteries series, readers can enjoy it as an introduction to the series as well. The interpersonal relationships are clearly explained, and we get a rather encompassing rundown of Juni’s emotions and thoughts on everyone and everything that is not only happening but how it relates to her past. Readers who enjoy complicated relationships, not just romantic, but the web between friends and acquaintances as well, will enjoy seeing the tangled web of small town Texas life. While Rhythm and Clues is my introduction to Olivia Blacke’s work, I am looking forward to reading more and will be getting my hands on the first two soon to see Juni’s adventures from page one. — Carla Schantz