Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Coconut Drop Dead is the third book in the Spice Island shopfront cozy mystery series by Olivia Matthews. Released 26th Dec 2023 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 288 pages and available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. Ebooks with interactive formats are so handy.
This is a breezy fun shopfront cozy with an appealing and intelligent protagonist who's a baker, working with her family (and solving the occasional murder/mystery). As with most cozies, the emphasis is on the characters and the puzzle. It's well constructed and easy to read, with clean language and no over the top violence. The addition of a likable protagonist and her family with roots in the West Indies gives the whole a Caribbean flair. It's nice to find a new series with well written PoC in central roles with positive representations. Lyndsay's family are adorable and fun to read and their relationship with one another is refreshingly healthy and functional. Ms. Matthews is herself an author of color and does a good job of writing these mysteries from her own background and family history.
The mystery and resolution are self-contained in this volume, so it works fine as a standalone. It's not at all derivative, but fans of Sue Minix, Wendy Meadows, and Ellie Alexander will likely enjoy this series also.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for a mini-binge or buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.