A DEADLY INSIDE SCOOP

The year’s first snowfall reveals a corpse to a small-town entrepreneur.

Making up most of the tiny African American population of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the Crewse family is a tight-knit bunch. That’s why, even after earning her MBA, youngest daughter Bronwyn doesn’t mind coming back to her hometown to resurrect Crewse Creamery, the ice cream shop her grandparents opened in 1965. In fact, when her PopPop hands over the keys to the shop on Christmas Day, Win’s heart just about bursts with pride. Family loyalty also explains why Win, struggling to reestablish the fledgling business, takes the time to investigate the death of Stephen Bayard, whose body she trips over after sledding down to the river to collect clean snow to use in Grandma Kay’s Snow Ice Cream recipe. Back in the day, Bayard wrought havoc in the Chagrin Falls business community, tricking Grandma Kay into signing the family business over to him before running away with bike shop owner Dan Clawson’s wife. So Bayard’s death makes Win’s father, surgeon James Crewse, Detective Liam Beverly’s prime suspect in a murder. It doesn’t help Dr. Crewse’s case when the coroner discovers that Bayard was catapulted into the next world by a hard-to-find anesthetic called succinylcholine. Putting a promising relationship with law professor Morrison Kaye on hold, Win focuses on two family-oriented goals: making Crewse Creamery a success and clearing her father’s name.

Ticks all the cozy boxes but sets none aflame.