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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone from Cabot Cove to Dalliance, "podunk" Texas is going to love meddlesome Tally when she tries to solve a double murder!, September 7, 2010
This review is from: Scoop to Kill: A Mystery a La Mode (Mass Market Paperback)
Tallulah Jones, more commonly known as Tally, was usually seen scooping up ice cream at her shop, Remember the A-la-mode, with cousin Bree and Alice Marie Anders, Bree's seventeen-year-old baby girl. Dalliance was nothing more than a regular old Texas podunk town and Tally made no apologies for that or anything else for that matter. Everything Tally had no patience for was simply a "la-di-freakin'-da" event, which could be loosely translated as laissez-faire in Texanese. Scoop `n' snoop was the name of the game for the two cousins. Tally was trying to keep her nose clean after she meddled in the murder investigation of her ex-husband's "fancy pants girlfriend," Brittanie Brinkman. And that she did until things started to heat up in Dalliance and it wasn't barbecue brisket.
It was Honor's Day at Dickerson University, a prestigious school where Alice was a first year student. Sacrifices had to be made for relatives so Tally was going. Tally met Dr. Emily Clowder, whom she thought had a "brilliant mind, but she sure couldn't carry on a conversation" for beans and when her old flame Finn Harper gave Em a hug it was almost enough to make her barf. She'd much rather be at the Bar None on karayoke night watching Bree do her thing. Things soon went from bad to worse when Alice accidentally stumbled across Bryan Campbell's bloody corpse. The young twenty-six-year-old doctoral student "had been bludgeoned to death, apparently with an industrial-sized stapler." The population of Dalliance was now down one at their "high falutin university" . . . one less man no one would miss.
The "Dickerson Daily" and the "Dalliance News-Letter" were hopping and bopping with speculation right along with everyone else in town when Detective Cal McCormack's nephew was murdered. Was it true Dr. Clowper flunked him because he refused her advances? No one would ever know because the next time anyone saw Emily was when she was at the end a rope and Ms Tally just happened to be at the scene of the grime. "Vonda, this is Tally Jones. We need an ambulance . . . . " Tally had sworn to herself that she was going to keep her big Texan barbecue brisket loving nose clean, but this was just too much. Next thing you know, she was on the phone talking to an answering machine. "Hey, Cal. Tally here. Uh, I want to be straight with you, okay? This is my official notice. I'm fixin' to meddle." She was going to meddle Texas style and that meant BIG time!
Everyone from Cabot Cove, Maine to Dalliance, "podunk" Texas is going to love meddlesome Tally when she tries to solve a double murder. I enjoyed the ease with which this book crossed the Bar None crowd with the academia of Dickerson University. No one will look up or down at any of the characters in this book, but rather will find an utterly charming character named Tally who can snoop `n' scoop like no tomorrow. I loved her down to earth qualities and would roll my eyes and laugh like crazy when she said things like, "I may talk like I got a banjo up my ___ , but I can read, you know." Can you spell h-o-o-t? The mystery was a step above many of those in the cozy genre in that you'll have to really think about the little clues thrown out. If you want a fun, festive mystery with a tangy Texan flare, Tallulah "Tally" Jones is going to serve you up one à la mode!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Delectable Academic Mystery, October 18, 2010
This review is from: Scoop to Kill: A Mystery a La Mode (Mass Market Paperback)
Ever since I read my first Amanda Cross mystery I've been a huge fan of academic mysteries. Universities just seem to be such ripe institutions for murder, what with Publish or Perish, battles over tenure, sexual harassment, sports' mania, frat parties, budget battles, plagiarism, cheating, department politics...The list seems endless. Among my favorite authors who depict murder in academia are Joanne Dobson, Bill Crider, Jane Haddam, and now, Wendy Lyn Watson. Although technically, she is the author of the Mystery A La Mode series, revolving around an ice cream parlor, her latest mystery SCOOP TO KILL vividly depicts the seedy side of the academia..
So the shame here would be for fans of academic mysteries to pass by this engrossing series, which features Tallulah "Tally" Jones, owner of Dallas's Dalliance ice cream parlor. When Tally's niece (actually her first cousin once removed) Alice stumbles across the body of a rather unlikable male graduate student at Dickerson University, suspicion falls on Professor Emily Clowper, who in a nice twist was being accused of sexual harassment by the deceased. Professor Clowper also happens to have been the ex-girlfriend of Finn Harper, Tally's old high school boyfriend and current who-knows-what. Torn between Finn's request to help Emily, warnings from the victim's uncle (who happens to also be a detective) to stay uninvolved, and Alice's determination to defend her professor, Tally finds herself enrolled undercover at the University and enmeshed in department squabbles, egotistical academics, and scholarly
peccadilloes. The task of creating a Groom's Milkshake seems to be an easy task and welcome distraction in comparison to the undercurrents going on at Dickerson.
This is an exceedingly well-written mystery that more than any mystery I've read lately graphically sums up the pressures and challenges professors and instructors face in universities. They are tasked with the nearly impossible duties of educating students who evaluate based on easy grades, pleasing parents who expect the money they paid to be rewarded in degrees, and publishing in journals that are reviewed by their competitive peers. The experiences of living in a small town where everyone knows you and knew you when you were growing up is as well depicted, along with delightful, original characters. The motivation behind the crime may be spotted early on, and a plot twist that occurs halfway through the novel is revealed by the summary on the back cover, but this in no way inhibits the enjoyment a reader will find in this tasty, engrossing mystery.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GET A SCOOP!!, September 10, 2010
This review is from: Scoop to Kill: A Mystery a La Mode (Mass Market Paperback)
A Mystery a la Mode
Obsidian Mystery
Release Date September 7, 2010
2nd book of Series
Wendy Lyn Watson sure knows how to make a cozy mystery sundae!! A big scoop of murder, a scoop of small town charm, a scoop of characters you will fall in love with, a sweet topping with just the right amount of romance, a little whipped up humor and the cherry on top, Tallulah Jones, proprietor of Dalliance, Texas's old-fashioned ice-cream parlor, Remember the A-la Mode.
In Scoop To Kill, Tally is serving up dessert for an Honor's Dinner at the local university, but before the party even gets started, Tally's niece discovers the body of a graduate student. A student that has accused a certain professor of sexual harassment, who failed him on his graduate work and was making his future melt right before his eyes. The professor becomes the prime suspect, but Tally's niece, Alice, doesn't believe it and begs Tally to help her scoop out the truth. As Tally starts to investigate, she enters the world of academia, where she finds extramarital affairs and cutthroat tactics are the norm, not the exception, so the number of suspects continues to grow. Tally is afraid Alice is getting too close to the killer and just may end up in the deep freeze, so she needs to churn out the killer before it's too late.
I LOVED IT!!!!!
Ice cream never tasted this good!!! This mystery is scrumptious, delicious, delectable, and oh so yummy. The setting was perfect. The characters both good and bad, and with the plot twists sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the two, are full of life and entertaining. The only thing that could make this story more luscious, would be to freeze it and put it on stick or in a bowl so you could actually taste the wonderful flavors of ice cream from Remember the A-la Mode! A real treat, a must taste, I mean read!!!!!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Obsidian, a division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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