The Rocky Road to Ruin

An Ice Cream Shop Mystery, Book 1

By: Meri Allen

Narrated by: Senn Annis

Justice will be swirled by amateur sleuth Riley Rhodes in the first in Meri Allen's brand-new mystery series, The Rocky Road to Ruin!

Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut—land of dairy farms and covered bridges—for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley’s trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father’s cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. It feels like a time to help her friend Caroline rebuild after her mother’s death, and for Riley to do a bit of her own reflecting after a botched undercover mission in Italy. After all, it’s always good to be home.

But Caroline and her brother Mike have to decide what to do with the assets they’ve inherited—the ice cream shop as well as the farm they grew up on—and they’ve never seen eye to eye. Trouble begins to swirl as Riley is spooked by reports of a stranger camping behind the farm and by the odd behavior of the shop’s mascot, Caroline’s snooty Persian, Sprinkles. When Mike turns up dead in the barn the morning after the funeral, the peace and quiet of Penniman seems upended for good. Can Riley find the killer before another body gets scooped?

©2021 Meri Allen (P)2022 Vibrance Press

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen

Narrated by Senn Annis is a delightfully written murder
mystery. A good read for a dull day. Well written in picturesque
speech. Could almost see the people & locations. Have a low fat snack handy. lol

Great Book

The Rocky Road to Ruin is an entertaining cozy mystery. I look forward to the next book.

Read it, dont listen

The narrator uses the same inflection at the end of 95% of the sentences and it's super distracting from the actual story. There is no feeling in her voice. The story is getting good, though im not sure i can finish. if you crank up the speed a bit, its a little better, but not much.

Enjoyable New Series

How does a travel blogger/CIA Librarian/sometimes covert operative find herself managing an ice cream shop in her hometown? Oh, and there is at least one murder to which she feels compelled to apply her skills. You will just need to read the book to find out what motivations and secrets brought Riley Rhoades to this point and what she does about it.

I enjoyed the book and will purchase book 2, assuming it comes available. The characters have potential, and I hope Ms. Allen develops them, including Riley's CIA background. There was a lot of ground to cover in this first book, and it seems a lot left to be discovered, but that is what makes a series.

The narrator is okay, not stellar, but not annoying. If the next book has a new narrator it shouldn't impact the series. This narrator did not "own" these characters - yet.

Ice cream with mystery

Pleasant settings and jobs having a colorful cast of characters for background and help to solve mysteries plus with some cats antics