Kirkus Reviews
A small town may mean big trouble for the owner of a New England pub. Shady Creek, Vermont, seemed like the ideal escape for Sadie Coleman. When she's not inventing new cocktails, curating reading lists for meetings of the local book club, and mediating quarrels among cantankerous townspeople, The Inkwell, a literary-themed pub she's opened in an old mill, keeps her busy. And keeping busy prevents Sadie from dwelling on her busted romance with fellow Bostonian Eric Jensen, whose return to the gambling table after promising he'd quit sent her off to the countryside and the solace of her nurturing Aunt Gilda. Of course, quiet doesn't always mean tranquil, and matching wits with her handsome but cranky neighbor Grayson Blake, owner of Spirit Hill Brewery, keeps Sadie on her toes. A fire that guts two stores in Shady Creek's tiny business district makes her uneasy. But what really puts Sadie on edge is learning that Eric's coming to town with plans to win her back. Eric's good in tentions are cut short dramatically, and Sadie has to keep one step ahead of the police in a fast-paced race to see who can stop a killer from striking again. It's hard to imagine how Fox, already author of the Pancake House Mysteries (Yeast of Eden, 2018, etc.) and the Music Lover's Mysteries (Deadly Overtures, 2016, etc.), can keep still another franchise going. But readers will cheer this brisk, literate addition to the world of small-town cozies. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Sadie Coleman, the narrator of this amiable if middling series launch from Fox (the Pancake House mysteries), leaves Boston after breaking up with Eric Jensen, a compulsive gambler, and moves to Shady Creek, Vt., where she buys a pub located in a renovated mill, naming it the Inkwell to celebrate her love of literature. When Eric shows up one evening three months after her arrival in town, she avoids him only to find his dead body the following morning. Sadie suspects handsome but hostile craft brewery owner Grayson Blake, who was seen throwing Eric off his property; other suspects include a thug hired by one of the bookies to whom Eric owed money and the local youths who brawled with him the night before he died. Sadie herself becomes a target when her car tires are slashed and someone attempts to burn down the mill. The mystery's setting and solution are solidly crafted, though Sadie, who's given to unfounded accusations and corny literary exclamations ("What the Charles Dickens?"), feels unconvincing both as businesswoman and as sleuth.