The Rocky Road to Ruin, Meri Allen
The Rocky Road to Ruin, Meri Allen
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

The Rocky Road to Ruin
An Ice Cream Shop Mystery, Book One

Author: Meri Allen

Narrator: Senn Annis

Unabridged: 9 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Vibrance Press

Published: 04/22/2022


Synopsis

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 Delicious 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?

Reviews

Goodreads review by Carrie on July 15, 2021

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen is the first book in the new cozy Ice Cream Shop Mysteries series. As with most cozy mysteries this first book does contain it’s own mystery that is fully solved so it could be read as a standalone without a cliffhanger for the next book. On the outside Riley Rho......more

Goodreads review by Elle G. Reads on June 28, 2022

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen is the first book in this ice-cream inspired cozy mystery series! While this one did start off slow for me, I found myself enjoying it more and more as I read it. I think it took a little while for the characters to grow on me, but they did! Now I can’t wait to s......more

Goodreads review by Mark on July 22, 2021

Riley Rhodes has returned home to Penniman, Connecticut, for the funeral of her best friend’s mother. After the service, she sees that Caroline and her brother, Mike, are fighting over what to do with the property that the two of them were left, including Udderly Delicious, the ice cream shop where......more

Goodreads review by Christine on July 21, 2021

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen is the first book in a cute new cozy mystery series. Riley Rhodes is a travel blogger and a librarian for the CIA. Unknown to her friends and family, she was sometimes given undercover assignments by the CIA as well. She returns to her hometown to support her bes......more

Goodreads review by Mystery, She Read on January 22, 2025

3.75 🌟 Mood Reader Season/ Vibes: Summer This was a confusing one. It was interesting enough to keep me entertained but I found it confusing with too many characters to remember. I’m glad it doesn’t follow the exact same cozy mystery tropes I often see but I did find that by the end the mystery was w......more