A Killer Sundae

In Collette’s delectable third Ice Cream Parlor mystery (after 2021’s A Game of Cones), business is booming since Bronwyn “Win” Crewse took over Crewse Creamery, the ice cream parlor her family has owned for decades in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Win is sure the 75th annual Harvest Time Festival is the perfect venue to unveil the creamery’s newly acquired ice cream truck, and she’s thrilled when Kaitlyn Toles, an egotistical and rather unpleasant reporter for the local TV station and Win’s onetime high school nemesis, wants to film a short news feature about Win’s new venture. But when Kaitlyn dies at the festival, apparently poisoned after filming Win’s TV spot, Kaitlyn’s grief-stricken boyfriend begs Win to help him find out who killed her. Besides a picturesque setting and a cast of appealing secondary characters, Collette has created a truly original protagonist in Win, the proprietor of the town’s first Black-owned business and the world’s most reluctant investigator. Readers will want to see a lot more of the tenderhearted Win. Agent: Rachel Brooks, Bookends Literary. (Jan.)