Hi I’m Riley Rhodes, manager of the Udderly Delightful Ice Cream Shop. Dru asked me to write about a day in my life.

A day in my life? Which life?

As a former librarian, I think of my life in chapters. For years I enjoyed my work at the Central Intelligence Agency library and traveled extensively. I started a blog, Rhode Food, writing about the exotic delicacies I discovered in the dozens of countries I visited. I wasn’t surprised when I was approached about doing some undercover work – my travel was perfect cover. Trust me, I was no James Bond, had no license to kill. My assignments were the subtle work of everyday spy craft – a message delivered with a chalk mark, a newspaper folded a particular way, or a window shade half closed on a sunny day.

But then I met Paolo. I won’t go into the drama in Rome, but my attraction to a dangerously handsome coworker let down my guard, and when it turned out he had his own hidden agenda, the fallout made me mistrust my own judgment and abruptly brought to a close my short lived career as an operative.

To close the book on that episode, I took a new job in my hometown of Penniman, Connecticut, a picture perfect New England village complete with its own covered bridge and town green. Throwing myself into managing the Udderly Delightful Ice Cream Shop has been an unexpected joy and challenge. Every day I stretch my culinary muscles mixing up delicious new flavors for the shop, surrounded by the scents and flavors of sinfully rich dark chocolate, spicy cinnamon, and sweet, fresh strawberries from the organic farm across the lane. My staff keeps me grounded: Brandon Terwilliger, a teenage drummer who lives to mix up the most bizarre ice cream flavors; Flo Fairweather, a former kindergarten teacher who flirts with every handsome customer; and Flo’s sister, Geraldine Hunt, the imposing former principal of Penniman High School. To be honest, I’m still a little afraid of Gerri.

The best part of living in Penniman has been reconnecting with my dad, who runs the village’s used bookshop, The Penniless Reader, and my best friend, Caroline Spooner. I live with Caroline in the old farmhouse behind the shop along with her Persian cat, Sprinkles, a neurotic former show cat who was kicked off the circuit for bad behavior. Sprinkles is a feline version of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. Let’s just say that Sprinkles and I don’t exactly get along.

The bucolic life on the farm and sweet rewards of running the shop seemed like a safe new chapter, but when an arsonist started setting fires on the farm and a dead body was discovered in the barn, I turned back the pages to my previous life and the skills I used in my library job and days as an operative. Life in Penniman may seem peaceful on the surface, but I’ve learned the hard way that appearances can be deceiving.

The Rocky Road to Ruin, An Ice Cream Shop Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: July 2021
Purchase Link

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 Delightful 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?

About the author
Meri Allen believes that books are magic. She is the author of the new Ice Cream Shop mystery series from St. Martin’s Press. Her debut, The Rocky Road To Ruin, made Book Riot’s 2021 list of “Seven of the Best New Murder Mysteries to Add to Your TBR.” Like her main character Riley Rhodes, she is a librarian – but not for the CIA. A native New Englander, she enjoys haunting vintage shops and bookstores. She shares photos of cozy New England and amazing ice cream confections on her social media: Instagram @meriallenbooks and on Facebook at MeriAllenBooks. Also check out her website at meriallen.

All comments are welcomed.