The Grim Steeper
Teapot Collector Mystery, Book #3
By Amanda Cooper
ISBN: 9780425265253
Author Website: www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
Mid-October in the charming Finger Lakes town of Gracious Grove means it’s time for the annual Fall Fling Townwide Tea Party. The highlight of the festivities is a roaming tea-tasting, which includes a stop at Auntie Rose’s Victorian Tea House. Sophie Taylor would like to share her enjoyment of the event with her sort-of boyfriend, English teacher Jason Murphy, but Jason’s dean has accused him of falsifying grades to help an athlete at the local college. Steamed and stressed, Jason shows up the night of the party with bags under his eyes.
But the dean shows up under Sophie’s Japanese Maple later that night, murdered, and now Jason is suspected of far worse than fudging grade reports. It’s up to Sophie, her Nana, and their friends the Silver Spouts to pore over the clues to find out who really decided to teach the dean a lesson. (From Goodreads)
Review:
‘The Grim Steeper’ is 3rd in A Teapot Collector Mystery series, and the best to date! It can be enjoyed as a standalone or as part of the series.
After working in the Hamptons for a few weeks, Sophie dropped everything, including the position, to drive all night to Gracious Grove; her beloved Nana had had a heart attack, and she had to be with her! When Nana got home from the hospital, she couldn’t go back to work as soon as she hoped; Sophie and Lavern, Nana’s business partner and best friend, happy to do whatever was needed, including preparing for their role in the Fall Fling Townwide Tea Party. There are several tea houses in town, and the event celebrated the community’s love of tea. As always, Auntie Rose’s participates, and Sophie plans to also help her friend Rhiannon, who prepares their custom tea blend, with her booth at Cruikshank College.
Cruikshank is a major employer in the area; Jason, her close friend from high school was an English instructor there, and the supervising professor for his doctoral thesis and department head, Julia, was also the new owner of a yoga studio and tea shop in Gracious Grove. It was Julia, also, who explained some of the finer points of collegiate sports as a business, and told her what was troubling Jason. He was being falsely accused of inflating the grade of one of his students from a D to an A; the ‘star’ basketball player’s father was rumored to have ‘greased a palm’ to keep the young man on the team. A minimum grade point average was required to be met in order to continue playing on the team, and Mac MacAllister had failed to do so. If Jason were found guilty of the charge, he might never be able to complete his doctorate and become a professor, forcing him out of his career goal anywhere in the US.
Sophie was angry about the situation as she believed Jason to be innocent, but there was nothing she could do except support him as best as she could. She also learned more about those involved at Cruikshank; it seemed to be a collegiate Peyton Place. One almost needed a scorecard to keep track of the staff, much less the athletes!
If this isn’t your first visit to Gracious Grove, you know that Sophie always figures out something to do! She had no choice! Especially after the night of the Tea Party. First, she overheard conversations that got her blood boiling hotter than water for tea. After the visits were done and everything put away, Sophie went to take the garbage to the street, and made a grisly discovery – the clearly murdered body of the Dean who had been preparing to announce the following morning who was found guilty of changing Mac’s grade. In front of Nana’s home.
While my choice of careers would never be a chef, or a cook of any kind (one of the more challenging things for me!), I like and admire Sophie, and adore Rose and Laverne! While I’ve grown closer to each of these ladies through this series, I have come to appreciate Thelma for the comic relief she provides. The author has defined each of her primary characters very well; I feel that I came away knowing most of them better with the possible exception of Jason, who is an enigma. Those specific to this cozy are shown as much as necessary for their roles. Written in third person, we don’t have the luxury of seeing Sophie’s inner thoughts throughout; we learn of each person through observing their behaviors and conversations as well as from what the narrator chooses to share. This author’s characterizations and plotting talents are amazing.
The plot is fresh and exciting. The scandals surrounding the basketball player and the deceased lend that fresh note while trying to find the bad guy/ gal and survive that solution bring the suspense and excitement. The plot twists and turns show many layers of collegiate politics and sleuthing; is the murder related to the changing of Mac’s grade, or are the two circumstances completely separate? The additional situations of the perceived betrayal of Sophie by her mother and Thelma’s meddling fleshed out the personal aspects of the novel. Sophie also learned that at least one woman was envious of how she and her friends went shopping and did girl’s stuff together.I was stumped by these mysteries, and found only slight satisfaction in finding out that my last wild guess at solving the crimes was right, as the motive escaped me. This has been a delightfully suspenseful visit in Gracious Grove; next time maybe there will be more opportunity to stop and taste the tea! I highly recommend ‘The Grim Steeper’ to those who enjoyed other books in the series, appreciate well-plotted mysteries, understand a bit of collegiate life from athletics to politics, and would definitely enjoy a good cuppa with Sophie, Lavern, and Rose.
