A Sprinkle in Time by Dana Mentink

Available May 24, 2022

The yodelers are in town for Alpenfest and it's a boon for the business owners of Upper Sprocket, especially Trinidad Jones at the Shimmy and Shake and her sister-in-ex, Bonnie, at the Station. Unfortunately Papa Luis comes home from Bonnie's with a little something more than blueberries in the trunk of his beloved classic car.

This book gives us a twist on the classic cozy mystery, instead of going straight to the whodunit, we spend some time pondering whowasit. It doesn't take long to figure out the missing body was that of Forge, a ruthless local businessman with enemies aplenty. Carlos and Diego dig up a potential connection to a local girl who went missing 30 years earlier and a mysterious traveling reporter seems awfully interested in certain people around town.

I really like the characters in this book. Trinidad is kind and vulnerable but never weak. Her relationships with Bonnie and Juliette are becoming stronger and make what she went through with cheating ex-husband Gabe almost worthwhile. Felice, Bonnie's daughter, plays an increasing role in this book and she's a very charming kid who's wormed her way completely into Trinidad's heart (not to mention the reader's).

The killer was kind of easy to spot, but there were enough other characters with plenty of motive that I was not completely convinced until the very end and even then I didn't realize the connections that existed between other characters until the big reveal. The author weaved past events into the current events well and sprinkled plenty of evidence around. This is a series I will definitely continue to read and highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.