Book 72, 2024
Shadow of a Spout by Amanda Cooper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I nearly finished my work book at lunch on Friday. Since I had so little left to read I brought it home and finished it last night. The book was Shadow of a Spout, and it's the second book in Amanda Cooper's "Teapot Collector" mystery series. The main character seems to be Sophie Freemont, who's helping her grandmother, Rose, run her teashop. However, this book devoted quite a lot of time to Rose as well.
Rose and her BFF, Laverne, have gone to a convention for teapot collectors, leaving Sophie behind to run Auntie Rose's Tea House. At the convention, Rose asks an expert on teapots for her opinion on an antique item she has recently acquired. When Zunia dismisses it as junk, Rose publicly berates her. Later, when Zunia is found murdered, Rose's teapot is next to her and appears to be the murder weapon. Once Sophie learns her grandmother is in trouble, she heads to the hotel where the convention is being held to lend her support. Sophie ends up asking questions in an effort to get a timeline of events and to learn alibis in an effort to direct police attention away from Rose. Unfortunately for Sophie, there is no shortage of people who may have wished to see Zunia dead.
This was your basic cozy mystery. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing outstanding, either. The author wrote in third-person point of view but chose to follow several characters instead of just one. Personally, I prefer it if the narrative is in the perspective of just one character. I thought Sophie went a bit overboard with her "investigation"
Favorite lines:
♦ This place was hotter than a bordello on nickel night.
♦ How would she explain to his mother that he went to a teapot collecting convention and got beaten up?
♦ Who knew there were octogenarian drama queens?
♦ That woman was just a murder waiting to happen.
An okay read, but just okay. Three stars.