A Fatal Groove

The Record Shop Mysteries

B: Olivia Blacke

Publish Date: 25 July 2023

Publishers: St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Paperbacks

Mystery and Thrillers

100 Book ReviewsProfessional Reader

I would like to thank both NetGalley and St. Martin Press for allowing me to read and review this book.

Good Reads Synopsis:

CATCHING A KILLER WITHOUT SKIPPING A BEAT.

It’s springtime in Cedar River, Texas. The annual Bluebonnet Festival is brewing and the whole town is in harmony. Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie thought opening Sip & Spin Records was going to be their biggest hurdle, but the Frappuccino hits the fan when the mayor drops dead―poisoned by their delicious coffee.

Since Tansy was the one to brew the coffee, and Juni was the unfortunate citizen who stumbled upon the mayor’s body, the sisters find themselves in hot water. Family is everything to the Jessups, so with Tansy under suspicion, the sisters spring into action.

Between the town festivities, a good old-fashioned treasure hunt, and an accidental cow in the mix, Juni will have to pull out all the stops to find the mayor’s killer.

Book Review:

I gave this book 4 stars. Even though I didn’t read the first book in the series I was able to follow along without an issue. I do want to go back and read the first book.
This book is set in Texas, and it is during the blue bonnet season. Every year they have a festival for the state flower and during this one there is a death. The mayor of the city is found dead in his office. Just before he went to his office, he picked up a coffee from the Sip and spin booth. Now one of the sister’s is being investigated for his death. Also with this festival is an old treasure hunt theory. Who killed the mayor and why? Was it the sister or someone else. Is the treasure hunt real or fake? You will have to read the book to find out.

What I like about this book is that you could it without having to read the first book. The author does a great job of giving you enough back information to not feel lost. I also love the family in this book. Not only the three sisters but one of the love interest family. There was some miss understanding between some of the characters which can happen in real life. I like how they brought their two favorite things together in one store. I would recommend this book and the series.

Juni Jessup finds herself in the middle on another murder mystery with plenty of suspects. It's just so happens she has to get her sister, Tansy, off that suspect list.

Mayor Bob Bobbert has been murdered. Of course it didn't help that Juni finds him dead while holding a cup of coffee from their booth at the Blue Bonnet Festival.

Not only does she have to find the murderer, and clear her sister's name, but there's also an old bank heist mystery to solve as well.

To say I am hooked on this series is an understatement. Olivia Blacke has written a fun and fresh cozy mystery series full of coffee puns and vinyl records. Each conundrum that Juni gets into she works her way out of by investigating in ways that drives her ex, Det. Beau, a little crazy.

Definitely pick this book up, and give it a read. Not only are cozy mysteries fun to read, but you can follow along and play detective, too.

Almost seven months ago I read the first book in this series- Vinyl Resting Place- and was enchanted by the Jessup sisters, their record store, and a new cozy series. Tonight I finished the second book and it was just as wonderful and fun!

It's been a whole month since Juni Jessup found a body and had to solve a murder. Now, on the day of Cedar Rivers' Bluebonnet Festival, Juni finds another body and the Jessup sisters have another murder to solve.

What follows is a great mystery with all the twists, turns, and drink puns you could possibly want. I am still cackling over Sweet Chai of Mine. The characters are well drawn, the mystery has some good reversals, and there's even some educational moments thrown in for good measure. And there are two mysteries being solved and the solutions to the older mystery is just as satisying.

I love this series. I love the way Olivia Blacke is filling the town with interesting characters. I look forward to many more Record Shop Mysteries in the future!

A Fatal Groove by by Olivia Black is the second in the Record Shop series and does not disappoint. Juni and her sisters, owners of Sip & Spin Records, are sponsoring Cedar River’s Bluebonnet Festival, running the DJ booth and providing the coffee. The festival has barely begun when tragedy strikes and Juni’s sister Tansy is a prime suspect.

I loved the mystery within a mystery aspect of this book as well as the background on Texas Bluebonnets. It was a well-paced page-turner with interesting characters and a charming small town location that held my interest throughout. The sisters connect and interact in a way that adds to the story. (I reviewed an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.)
This series is definitely on my “must read” list.

Music, mayhem and loads of drama await us in “A Fatal Groove”, the second in the Record Shop series by Olivia Blacke. Juni, and her sisters Tansy and Maggie (who are all named after flowers), are thrust into a police investigation when the mayor was found dead holding a coffee cup from their shop, Sip & Spin Records. Juni, who is a fledgling detective, was determined to get to the bottom of the latest murder to hit her small town of Cedar River. It certainly helps when the lead detective on the case, Beau, is vying to win back Juni’s heart and she uses that in an attempt to get information out of him. Of course, he sees right through her deviousness, but he will do anything in the name of love.

Juni and her sisters compiled a long list of suspects, which included their mother’s new boyfriend, and they methodically investigated all of them. If the murder wasn’t enough to deal with, there was also a renewed interest in an unsolved bank robbery from 1956 where the money was never found. Strangers were infiltrating Cedar River with their metal detectors looking for the money which just added to the chaos and speculation. Was the mayor’s death somehow connected to the missing money and more importantly, who would benefit most from his death? Cedar River, Texas is a small town filled with quirky characters, beautiful and abundant bluebonnets (the state flower) and a peacefulness that we all need in our lives. I love Juni, Tansy and Maggie and I am confident that together, they will make their town safe once again!!

Such a fun follow up to the first book! Juni and her sisters stay sassy while helping to solve the latest mystery, which was filled with red herrings and fun. While I wasn't much interested in either of her love interests, I will say they've done a bit better in making me not actively want a better love interest for her. Good to see a little more about everyone's lives and loved that little tidbit about Tansy's "nemesis"!

It’s the weekend of the Bluebonnet Festival in Cedar River, Texas, and Juni Jessup and her sisters are looking forward to fun while also selling coffee and introducing the bands on the main stage. Their first customer of the first day is Mayor Bob. When Juni goes to drop something off at his office a little later, she finds him dead. With their reputations once again on the line, the sisters try to figure out what is happening. Mayor Bob was popular because he didn’t make any waves, so who would want to kill him?

After an initial strong start, the book stalled a bit introducing some sub-plots before it really got started again. I did guess the killer a little early, but I needed Juni to fill in most of the rest. Once again, there are some odd uses of they/them pronouns, and Juni’s first-person narration comes across as judgmental a few times. Overall, I do like her and I love her relationship with her sisters. The love triangle is still in play, although it takes a back seat to the rest of the happenings. There are lots of smiles and some laughs along the way as well. If you enjoy music and are looking for a fun mystery, this is the series for you.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.75⭐️

A Fatal Groove was much more more fun to me than Vinyl Resting Place! I feel like Juni is really settling into her new career at Sip & Spin, and her confidence in crime solving is growing!

Personally, I'm not a fan of love triangles, they give me anxiety. This love triangle, however, really did feel like a tough choice! Normally I have a firm opinion, but both Beau & Teddy are really equal in the pros and cons list.

I loved the double mystery of the murder and the bank robbery! I feel like it added a layer necessary to the story, and we got to know the town a bit better.

It’s time for the Cedar River Bluebonnet Festival, and Juni Jessop and her sisters are providing the music, courtesy of their Sip & Spin record shop. There is a stage for local bands to play, but in between, they’ve got the music spinning to keep everyone happy. While Juni had only moved back to Texas recently, she remembered the festival from when she went as a kid with her sisters. Now it’s even bigger, with more rides and food trucks, but still with the 4-H animal tent and the pole-digging competition.

While the pole-digging competition was a throwback to a bank robbery that had happened in the town over sixty years before, it was a much more recent crime that occupied Juni that first morning of the festival. The mayor, Bob Bobbert, had stopped by the Sip & Spin booth for some coffee, and he wasn’t too impressed with the one selection they had chosen to feature there. As Juni had to get something from the shop, she decided to make the mayor one of his favorite drinks and take it to him at his office. But instead of finding a grateful coffee fan, she finds the mayor dead, still holding in his hands the coffee cup with the Sip & Spin logo that he had gotten from their booth, made by Juni’s sister Tansy.

Juni calls the police right away, and her ex-boyfriend Beau show up to start the investigation. He won’t give her many details from what he and the crime scene team find out, but she knows that as soon as it gets out to their small town that the mayor had been killed and had been clutching one of their coffee cups when it happened, that the foot traffic for their coffees would grind to a halt. And she and her sisters counted on those coffee drinkers to stay and buy some records. She had put all of her money into the business, and she just couldn’t sit back and watch it go under because of this.

As Juni and her sisters go around town, trying to learn more about the mayor and who might have wanted him out of the way, they find some interesting suspects. Marcus Best is a used car salesman and their mother’s new boyfriend, but he had recently invested in some real estate in a secret deal with the mayor. Could that have had something to do with the man’s death? Or Leanna, the head of the town’s council and Tansy’s long-time rival, swoops in to become acting mayor mere hours after the man died. Could she have killed him to further her own political career? Or was it someone online who had been bidding against the mayor in his drive to accumulate as much memorabilia as possible for that old bank robbery? Even Juni’s uncle Calvin was interested in buying some of that.

All Juni knows for certain is that she and her sisters had nothing to do with the murder. And she wants to get to the bottom of the mystery before they lose their family business to rumors, lies, and small town gossip.

A Fatal Groove is the second book in Olivia Blacke’s Record Shop mysteries, set in the heat of a Texas summer, but filled with country warmth and the camaraderie of a small town. Juni and her sisters and their beloved record store fill these pages with family love, companionship, and lots of good food and music while they try to find the truth.

I loved A Fatal Groove. The backdrop of the Bluebonnet Festival added brightness to this murder mystery, and the relationship of Juni and her family adds a lot of love and a little snark to the story as well. The coffee names are extremely punny, and who doesn’t love a surprise cow? And while I figured out who the killer was pretty early, I still enjoyed reading this book as it was just a pleasure to read. The words glided across the page, making me feel like I was having a great time at the festival, except maybe for the stomachache from eating too much. A Fatal Groove is a lovey addition to this series, and I genuinely can’t wait to see what Juni and her sisters will be up to next.

Egalleys for A Fatal Groove were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Juni, Tansy and Maggie once again make a wonderful team as amateur detectives in this cozy mystery. As the second in series reading feels like visiting friends in this Texas small town. It is lighthearted and a fun read. The author has created wonderful characters that witty and funny. The story is easy to read and will offer lots of fun.

4.5 rounded up!!

I love this series!! I love the Texas setting. I love the 3 sisters with their individual and unique personalities and styles. I love that they are carrying on a family business in their hometown. I love Teddy and Beau... how will Juni ever choose between the two potential romances?! I loved all the small town politics, the decades old town lore of missing treasure, and the beautiful bluebonnets. The mystery was so good and kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could. Loved it and can't wait to read more into this series to visit Cedar River again!

A Fatal Groove released yesterday so you can grab it now! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my e-arc!

I love this series! The sisters are so much fun and are written so well that their own distinct personalities leap off the page. The setting is quaint and cozy and the record shop adds just the right amount of edge to the coziness. I enjoyed following the clues with Junie and found the mystery to be well-paced. My only concern is the love triangle. Otherwise, I’m ready for the next one!

Vinyl records and a coffee shop aren't your usual suspects when it comes to settings for a cozy mystery but the author pulls off the right atmospheric groove and she might have a hit on her hands.

It is Blue Bonnet Festival time in Cedar River, Texas (near Austin). When Juni stops by the mayor's office to drop off some coffee and finds him dead with a cup of coffee from their store nearby. When poison proves to be manner of death, suspicion falls on Juni's sister Tansy. So family bonds together to track down the killer.

The author's love of Texas and, particularly, the special Blue Bonnet flower comes through strongly in the book. It adds a nice touch of place to the story. This couldn't be anywhere but in Texas. Some quirky but relatable characters, a quaint small town, a dash of romance and murder and you are all set. I hope to visit again soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is the second in the series. I love that it’s set outside of Austin in the Texas Hill Country and it deals with a record/café store. The coffee names are unique and whimsical.

Juni Jessup discovers the mayor dead in his office just before the Bluebonnet Festival is going to kick off. This is a locked room mystery. I enjoyed the characters, the history of bluebonnets, and the mystery. There were plenty of misdirection and twists to keep this interesting. I enjoyed the legend of the bank robbery and the dig competition.
The three sisters running the vinyl shop is unique. Love that they support each other. I especially like J.T. Juni’s brother-in-law.

I was given a digital unedited copy of this book to read. These are my own opinions. I recommend this book if you like mysteries with local feel and charm.

The sister relationship is awesome. I loved the Bluebonnet Festival! It sounded like so much fun. The ‘Karen’ incident made me chuckle. The mystery and the treasure hunt were well done and clever. So there was a lot of good things in this book.
The love triangle is not my favorite, so those parts of the book weren’t my favorite. If you like a love triangle, you will like this. If you don’t, you will enjoy the mysteries.

Cozy mysteries are a guilty pleasure of mine.  Mainly because they often hit on a hobby or favorite subject of mine.  Cooking.  Bookstores.  Sherlock Holmes.  However, this series takes two things I love the most - music and coffee - and combines them into a fun adventure through small town Texas.  Setting the series in a record shop that also has a coffee bar inside is a brilliant idea as far as I'm concerned.  It seems like one of the town's hubs of activity, which is even better.

Juni Jessop is a lot of fun and very likable.  Often, in cozies, the main sleuth can be annoying or treats the local law enforcement as incompetent.  Juni isn't like that, thankfully.  While she continually breaks her promises to Detective Beau Russell to stay out of it, she just can't help herself.  And, in some cases, she's hit in the face with information without looking for it.  

Her relationship with her sisters, her mother, and even her crazy uncle, is heartwarming.  The way they aren't afraid to disagree is nice.  They know in the end that all will be forgiven and that they'll always have one another in a pinch.  

As is often the case, there is a bit of a love triangle as well.  Juni is torn between her childhood friend, Teddy, and her ex-boyfriend, Beau.  Beau also happens to be the local detective, so he's not going anywhere anytime soon, nor should he.  Juni needs someone keeping an eye on her.  Since I haven't read the first book in the series, something I'm going to remedy soon, I can't say which I like better.  Although, Teddy seems like he'd be more fun, even if Beau comes off as an upstanding sort of guy.

The mystery itself is good.  I'm never very good at guessing who did it, but at times I thought I did know.  However, the author is good at distracting and placing red herrings to knock you off track.  In the end, it was both a surprise and not.  The murderer wasn't a surprise, but their motives weren't what I would have guessed in the beginning.  

Despite not having read the first in the series, I didn't find myself too lost.  The author is good at giving you just enough backstory to keep you from being confused while not bogging down the flow of the story.  I'm eager to go back and read the previous novel while I anxiously await more antics from Juni, Tansy, and Maggie.  A quick and fun read for anyone who enjoys music, coffee, and crazy small towns where everyone knows everyone else's business.

This second book in the Record Shop Mystery series is just as good as the first one. The action takes place in a small town outside Austin, Texas, and the author did a great job of making you feel the local color, from the ever-present cowboy hats to the Bluebonnet Festival.

The focus on family makes this series especially enjoyable. The main character is Juni (short for Juniper), the youngest of three sisters, who all have flower names; Maggie (Magnolia) and Tansy are the other two. Their relationship is wonderful and realistic. The three are running a record shop/coffee bar and are trying to get the store to be profitable. At the annual Bluebonnet Festival, the sisters are staffing the DJ booth and are also serving coffee. But when Juni stops by the town hall, she finds the long-term mayor dead in his office chair, holding a coffee cup from their business: Sip & Spin. The sisters worry that their business will totally dry up if the town thinks their coffee killed the mayor! Who wanted the mayor dead and did it have anything to do with the bank heist from way back in 1956? The money was never recovered and people are still searching for it. There’s even a hole-digging contest as part of the annual Bluebonnet Festival!

Building on the first book, Juni is still trying to figure out her relationship with her old friend, Ted, and with her ex-beau, Beau (ha!), the local detective. I’m still rooting for Ted, personally. There were some nice flashes of humor throughout, including the punny names for their coffee and tea drinks, such as My Heart Will Go Oolong, Don’t Worry, Be Frappé, and I Only Want To Be With Brew.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Engaging cozy mystery. Nice to be back at the record shop. Interesting characters and family. Coffee and music. Love triangle and a cat add to the fun. Clever mystery that kept me guessing. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

I am really starting to look forward to my visits to Cedar River, TX and Sip and Spin Records.

Having lived in TX before and for several years, this series is like a trip back and a reminder of all the things I love about Texas.

The Jessup sisters are great and I love how different they are and yet how they have each others backs.

When they mayor is found dead by Juni, she is immediately under suspicion along with her sisters. Their stand at the Bluebonnet Festival is the last place he was seen alive, getting the coffee that is now under suspicion.

This book is full of fun characters, a great setting, and events that have you laughing one minute and guessing the next.

I am already looking forward to the next in the series.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed my second visit to Cedar River. The record shop is up and running and the annual Bluebonnet festival is keeping Juni and her sisters busy. I really enjoyed seeing more of the town and was fascinated by the treasure hunting and the story of the 1956 bank robbery. I really enjoyed Juni's brother in law's role in the story. He's a good lawyer but he's also a good brother with a sense of humor.

The murder happens pretty quickly in the book and the investigation gets moving. It takes some digging to find out just who would want to killer the mayor and why. It's also fun to watch the Jessup family go all out to protect Tansy. I really wasn't sure just who it was until almost the end and I enjoyed spending time in Cedar River while I figured it out.

This is the second book in a fun and interesting series. The coffee shop aspect isn't unusual for a cozy but the music/record store adds a fun touch.