I Scream, You Scream

Tallulah Jones is newly divorced and struggling to keep her fledging ice cream parlor, Remember the A-la-mode off the ground. Unfortunately, part of keeping her business solvent means agreeing to cater the dessert for her ex-husband Wayne's annual Weed & Seed party. This year the party is to have a luau theme, and Wayne wants bright neon green, his business theme color, to be featured in the ice cream desserts. Tally can manage to whip up a green topping for some tropical sundaes, carefully keeping Wayne's dessert cups specially marked, due to his pineapple allergy.

It grates that Wayne seems to have a new, much younger thin girlfriend, Brittanie who seems to be his new "sugar". As Tally dishes up dessert at the party, folks seem drunker show more than skunks and the night ends with a stressful confrontation with Brittanie.

The next morning, Brittanie is found dead in bed, and it doesn't seem to be of entirely natural causes. The police have their sights set on Wayne, but even though Tally knows Wayne Jones to be a two-timing snake, she just can't believe he is capable of murder. Wayne won't come clear about where he was the night Brittanie died, and asks Tally to alibi him. Tally won't lie for her ex, but she does agree to poke around a bit.

It seems plenty of folks have reason to want to kill Brittanie. She seems to have slept with half the men and several of the women of Dalliance and made enemies of her fellow Zeta sorority sisters. Even chipper Lady Shapers guide Ashley seems to have been snubbed by Brittanie. Later, evidence turns up that there was antifreeze in the dessert cups marked for Wayne--the same dessert cups Tally served at the luau, and suddenly, the police seem to be focusing undue attention on her.

With her cousin Bree and niece Alice at her side as well as Tally's newly arrived ex-boyfriend from high school, she seeks to clear her name before she ends up in jail for a crime she did not commit. Can Tally keep her good name and her ice cream business afloat?

This is the first book in the Myatery A La Mode series, and on the whole I enjoyed it. I found the action well-paced and did enjoy the culinary aspects related to ice cream. I'd give this book 4 out of 5 stars. show less

I really enjoyed this book. It had been on my to read list for a while. Then in October 2010 a friend picked up an autographed copy for me, but I didn't want to run the risk of messing up my signed copy, so I waited to read it until I could get a copy from the library. I recently had surgery and chose this as my get me through the ordeal read. It was a good choice.

There were a couple of things about this book that were a good indicator that this would be a series I would enjoy: ice-cream and Texas. I'm a transplanted Texan living in Colorado (love both states by the way) and for me ice cream is second only to chocolate. These are the two reasons I picked up the book. Watson's creative and humorous storytelling are why I kept show more reading.

This is truly a cozy. Yes, there's a death, but there's not a lot of "danger." In several cozy mysteries I read, our intrepid sleuth manages to find themselves in danger of some sort or another at least once during the story. Tally is a straight forward, no-nonsense character, though she does seem to have a hard time picking the right man.

Watson has created well developed characters (along with Tally we meet her cousin Bree and Bree's daughter Alice and a love interest from Tally's past - Finn) that the reader will want to learn more about. Even though the murder plays a big part in this book, Watson does take the time to give us a clear picture of Tally and the other residents of Dalliance, Texas.

If you are looking for a well paced, light hearted read and love mysteries and ice cream, this is the series for you. Check back soon for my review of Book Two: A Scoop to Kill. Book Three: A Parfait Murder will be released in June.

Booklady's Rating: 5 of 5 show less

Tally, the owner of Remember the a-la-mode ice cream shop, has been accused of the murder of her philandering ex-husband's new girlfriend. There are a number of suspects because no one in town liked the girl.
The mystery here was pretty average, and pretty easy to guess the killer. There were a lot of characters that didn't really seem to go together and none of them were fleshed out that well. I think there were just too many ideas and not enough focus on a specific direction. Still, it was cute enough, and I'd be willing to read the next one to see how it goes now that we've been introduced to all of the characters.

Tallulah (Tally) Jones from Dalliance, Texas is the proprietor of Remember the À La Mode ice cream shop but when her ex-husband's young new girlfriend dies under suspicious circumstances, all eyes point to Tally as a prime suspect. To complicate matters further, Tally's old high school flame, now a polished reporter, is back in town and spending plenty of time at the ice scream shop looking for more than the latest scoop.

I Scream, You Scream is a murder mystery with all the charm of the southern town in which it is set. The book reads at a good pace and there were enough twists to keep the mystery fresh and interesting. Wendy Lyn Watson tells a succinct story while still setting up for more books in this delightfully sweet series.

Cute setting and an extremely relatable protagonist made this a fun, quick read!

Sometimes you just want a book you can read in a few hours. No intelligence needed, no lingering thoughts when you're done, just a quick and easy read to clear your mind. That was this book this month.

What a great start for a series, I almost figured it out!