RHYTHM AND CLUES

Three sisters try to keep their record store/coffee shop afloat before and after murder intervenes.

Juniper Jessup left a lucrative job in Oregon to help her sisters, Tansy and Maggie, run their late parents’ shop in Cedar River, Texas. Propelled by the rush of interest in vinyl among young music lovers and a taste for fresh java shared by Texans of all ages, Sip & Spin Records has started to break even. Before the Jessup sisters can even begin to squabble over the store’s still-unrealized profits, venture capitalists Zackary Fjord and Savannah Goodwin swoop down with a proposal to become silent partners. Zack leans toward high-priced inducements, like box seats to a professional hockey game. Savannah is low-key, wooing the sisters with visions of the ways Fjord Capital’s infusion of cash could help their business grow. Zack’s high-pressure campaign grinds to a halt when he’s killed by a brick that comes through his car window during a torrential rainstorm. Police detective Beau Russell, Juni’s wannabe boyfriend, isn’t convinced that Zack’s death is murder, but Savannah is, and she begs Juni to help find her partner’s killer. In a novel twist on the universally-hated-victim formula, Savannah introduces Juni to shop owners whose businesses are thriving because of Fjord’s help in addition to others who genuinely hated Zack’s guts. The more she investigates, the more Juni realizes that like business and life, murder is complicated. The investigation takes patience and finesse, but ultimately, amateur detection triumphs.

A well-paced probe into a messy death highlights the rewards of joining ingenuity with persistence.