Either this series has gone downhill, or my tastes have changed.

Songs of Wine and Murder is slow, repetitive, has continuity issues, and Jill, the owner of Coffee, Books, and More, in the tourist town of South Cove, has lost her spark and energy. And in this book, the number of times she has walked from the coffee van to her shop is mentioned more than the murder. The readers understand that Jill has a busy festival weekend ahead of her, which includes navigating through the crowd at a music festival, repeatedly getting food, heading to the beach to meet her fiancé for a coffee break, and managing employee rotations. There must be more going on than this since there is a body that no one is really that interested in until the last third of the book. Oh yeah, and an employee who thinks the new temp’s name is familiar only to find out a fill-in-the-blank ridiculous reason for her not remembering him. Plus, when the town detective wondered how his fiancée put the obvious together before he did, made me shake my head and wonder if I was wasting my time.

This series could benefit from new energy, fresh material, or a significant change to engage and excite the audience.

Back with Jill in California for a battle of the bands at a beach festival. Jill & her crew have the food truck onsite, & Darla is running the competition. A murder happens & Jill actually does not become fully vested in search for who did the act. It was interesting to read, as she heard information, passed it along & did not put herself, nor her friends in danger. The story ends & life goes on with a count down to the wedding. A good, quick read.
Thanks to NetGalley, Ms Cahoon & Kensington Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Songs Of Wine and Murder
A Tourist Trap Mystery, Book #15
Lynn Cahoon
5 Stars

Synopsis:

Fans of female sleuth cozies will delight in New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon’s latest installment in her long-running Tourist Trap Mystery series.

With the Moonstone Beach Festival coming up, Jill is touching base with her fellow small business owners to make it as successful as possible. It’s frustrating when Darla, the owner of South Cove Winery, is late to a big meeting, but they manage to get the discussion rolling about the kite flying event and the big Battle of the Bands—which Darla’s musician boyfriend is hoping will be his big break. And Jill, of course, will be there with her food truck, hoping for a financial boost after a slow spring.

But amid the fun in the California sun, someone will soon be planning a funeral instead of a festival—and Jill and her detective fiancé will have to find out who ruined the Moonstone Beach mood with murder . . .

Praise for Lynn Cahoon and the Tourist Trap Mysteries

“I love the author’s style, which was warm and friendly . . . [A] wonderfully appealing series.” —Dru’s Book Musings

“Lynn Cahoon’s popular Tourist Trap series is . . . one of my go-to cozy mystery series!” —Hope By the Book (Amazon)

Review:

The characters are well rounded and well developed. The Moonstone Beach Festival is supposed to be a way for all of the local businesses to make money for their leaner months. But when someone is murdered Jill and her friends will have to figure out the who and the why for the murder.

The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning. The writing style flows smoothly and it defines the characters very clearly by their actions and words. The mystery was well plotted and there were enough clues to sift through and suspect to consider.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. All of her books are really good and this one is no exception.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Kensington Books, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.

Songs of Wine and Murder by Lynn Cahoon is a Tourist Trap mystery and the locale for the new Moonstone Beach Band Blowout, the festival the darling of Darla Taylor from South Cove Winery. Jill Gardner is chairing the last meeting of business owners before the festival, but where was Darla? On the phone, it seemed, calling in late. She’d be there in five minutes. Her boyfriend, Matt, was in one of the bands competing in the festival against a band featuring the mayor’s son. It was causing a lot of stress, inccluding for Greg, her police detective boyfriend. These kinds of events always did, PLUS the mayor and his wife. All was going well. Jill had her staff split between her shop and the food truck. She was subbing in both and bring meals to each of her employees. The, the worst happened: a murder. Axel was a member of Matt’s band and now he’d been murdered. Worse yet, the band recruited his replacement from the band of the mayor’s son, Hans. There was going to be trouble, here, even more than had been anticipated.

Jill is surrounded by a cadre of good people: her aunt Jackie; Deek, her book expert; Esmerelda, her fortune-telling next door neighbor; Sadie, her friend, employee, and ersatz girlfriend to Pastor Bill; Tilll, the temp-about-to-be regular; Amy, her best friend; Toby, the part-time cop part-time barista who lived in her shed, and many more who wandered in and out of her life and shop. It is an interesting group of people. Cahoon has built a bunch of excellent characters, all with their own problems to solve, far from this murder. Jill was in the perfect position to hear things, between the shop and the food truck, her employees, and her other town responsibilities. All had their own concerns, making the read a genuinely pleasant experience. Jill, of course, couldn’t help but stick her nose into the investigation. Greg hated it. Esmerelda also worked for Greg, kept him organized and this weekend was no time for her to be out of town. She did return, though, set things to rights, and found the piece of evidence someone had filed before he’d seen it so he could solve the crime. Good mystery. Fabulous characters. Good story.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Songs of Wine and Murder by Kensington, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #Kensington #LynnCahoon #SongsOfWineAndMurder

Summary:
A battle of the bands festival has come to South Cove and it not only brings murder with it, but it also uncovers secrets. The Moonstone Beach and Band Blowout Festival becomes the backdrop for things not always being as they appear. Who dies? Who did it? Why?

Lynn Cahoon doesn't just bring you number 15 in her Tourist Trap Mystery Series, but she also gives you a fitting welcome to summer. Overall, I felt like this book was the perfect opener of a new season. Not only am I welcoming the summer weather where I live, but so is South Cove. So, it was nice to visit some of my favorite characters as summer starts.

Engaged couple Jill and Greg sprinkle in the wedding talk throughout the book, but it all takes a back seat when Axel, the lead singer for one the bands competing is found dead- choked to death with a guitar string. It doesn't take long for talk to start, and with talk comes secrets that get revealed. Was Hans, another member of a competing band responsible? Hans just so happens to be the nephew of the Mayor's wife. Were strings pulled to get his band this far? He doesn't leave the best of impressions with his behavior, but is he the one who killed Axel? Fingers start flying at more than one band member as the investigation unfolds- including some pointing in the direction of Jill's friend, Matt.

Meanwhile, at the bookstore, Jill has hired a new overflow employee. While she's amazing at her job, she has a connection to longtime employee, Toby. While he remembers her as his first love, and the one who broke his heart, she doesn't remember him at all. Why is that?

Readers of Songs of Wine and Murder are in for a delightful, lighthearted visit to their beloved beach town. So, pull up your beach/pool chair and catch some rays while you catch up on the latest happenings in South Cove.

A Tourist Trap Mystery is by far my favorite in the cozy mystery genre.

Jill and the rest of the South Cover residents are getting ready for a music festival until a murder happens.

All of these books are so well written and bring you into the story. I really want a Coffee, Books and More near me. It sounds like the dream coffee. I love Jill’s character and the soft characters that bring so much life into the story.


We not only get the murder solving story line but also other side storylines that really brings the town to life.

This murder solving seemed a little tamer then what I have been used to with all the other Tourist Trap Murders but they all can’t be actioned packed.

Also we doesn’t love Jill and Greg’s relationship.

I don't know how I want to feel about this. For a while, I was struggling getting into the story. Maybe it was the fact that this is book 15 of a series I have never read before or if I was comparing it too much to other mysteries like it. Then, the ending was so abrupt that I was going back saying "That's it?" Many of the other mysteries I have read sum up the whole mystery and who did it and then close out the book.... this one had about a paragraph of this is who did it, ok end.
I liked the mystery to a point, it was different, but the story felt like a let down at the same time. I did not understand why the murderer committed the murder or what the whole point of the plotline was.

A trip to South Cove with Jill and the gang is always interesting, and this great addition is no different with its beach festival and battle of the bands.

Songs of Wine and Murder is the most recent book in Lynn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap Mystery series. I have to admit that Lynn Cahoon is one of my favorite authors. She is most definitely my go to author for cozy mysteries. This book takes place in South Coast California. It is a small beach town. The usual cast of characters appear in the story. They consider themselves family. You will soon consider them part of your family too. Jill Gardner owns Coffee Books and More. This weekend South Beach is hosting the Moonstruck Festival. It is a music festival with the prize being a recording contract. For once, Jill doesn’t discover the body but she ends up right in the middle of the investigation. I just finished the book and I’m already hoping for the next Tourist Trap mystery! Five stars!

Great addition to the series and I love seeing the growth of the characters! The murder was twisty with plenty of red herrings and suspects to sort through. the ending was good even if a bit expected for me.

South Cove is looking forward to the Moonstone Beach festival and as such, business owners have gathered for their usual Tuesday of the month’s business-to-business meeting.

These meetings are held at Jill Gardner’s coffee shop and bookstore, Coffee, Books, and More with Jill as the liaison between the business council and city hall.

Darla Taylor, the owner, and manager of South Cove Winery and promotions chair for the business council, is planning on organizing a kite festival 🪁 as well as a band competition followed by an after-party 🎊 at her winery. Her boyfriend Matt is Darla’s boyfriend and his band is planning to perform at the Moonstone Beach event 🏝️

Amy Newman-Cross, Jill’s best friend is the mayor’s assistant as well as South Cove’s city planner, so she’d been assigned to attend the business meetings to take notes for the council.

While Jill and her friends are out on a ladies night at an axe bar in Bakerstown, they meet a woman named Jules who’s a drummer 🪘 for Matt’s band.

Soon after exchanging pleasantries, the girls witness Jules having an altercation with a young man named Hansel Baldwin, a lead guitar player in his band—he’s planning to be in South Cove for the band event. Hansel has a reputation for getting into bar fights and having his father bail him out of his problems.

When one of the band members wind up dead Jill and her detective fiancé Greg King will have to find out who disrupted the Moonstone Beach festival plans with murder.

An interesting mystery. Would recommend

Thank you to Lynn Cahoon, NetGalley and Kensington for the arc of this book.

I do love a visit to South Cove and seeing Jill, Greg, Toby and all the rest of the crew of Coffee, Books and More in South Cove. It was fun to see what they were all up to and check in with them. In this book South Cove is hosting a music festival and tensions are high as bands compete and several townspeople are involved. When a troublesome lead singer is found dead it's a case of out of all the people who wanted to kill the singer whose motive was the strongest.

As usual in this series, there's much more going on then just the mystery. Aunt Jackie has some health concerns, there's stuff happening at the bookstore as they balance running the store with keeping the food truck going for the music festival, and Jill still has her day to day life to live. The mystery felt a bit more on the backburner in this book than in previous books and there were a few times that Jill got on my nerves with her occasional judge-y attitude over others' actions.

I did enjoy the read and was along for the ride as Jill and Greg tried to figure out just who had killed Axel and I was surprised at the reveal. While this wasn't my favorite in the series it is still such a comfort read and just like visiting old friends.

Songs of Wine and Murder is the latest in the Tourist Trap Mystery series by Lynn Cahoon. Once again Jill can’t help but get involved in another murder investigation. Information keeps falling into Jill’s lap that points the police to a couple of suspects. But which one is the real culprit and do they have all the evidence they need to nail them? Read Songs of Wine and Murder to find out.
I enjoyed getting to visit with Jill and the rest of the citizens of South Cove again and can’t wait to again. I do wish Toby had a bigger part, like in the earlier books and I missed the element of danger too. I still enjoyed it and will recommend it to people who enjoy reading cozy mysteries. I can’t wait to read what happens next for Jill, Greg and the rest of the South Cove residents.

This was an interesting story. One man dies, there are mixed romances, and Jill is trying to find the killer.
Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

Jill's fiance is a cop and he wants her to stay out of it. Too bad...

It takes a while but they get it down to two suspects. Which of them killed the man?

South Cove is hosting a music festival and one of the contestants is murdered. Jill is busy with the store and food truck but hears snippets of information and passes it to her detective fiancé Greg. While not actively investigating, Jill wants the murder solved-one of her best friends and her boyfriend are involved. Great characters and setting!

"Songs of Wine and Murder” the 15 instalment in the "Tourist Trap” Mystery series by Lynn Cahoon. This is one of my favourite cozy mystery series! Sleuth Jill Gardner is trying to drum up business for Coffee, Books, and More—but a killer has other ideas . . .

As always I love visiting South Cove, California and Coffee, Books & More. I love the main set of characters Jill, Amy, Aunt Jackie, Harold, Greg, Toby, Deek, Evie, Judith and now Tilly as part of the CBM family. We learn more about Matt and Darla in this story and a few other residents as it seemed to swirl around relationships as well as rock and roll…

As for the mystery I found it to be well plotted and it moved along at a steady pace. There were lots of suspects for the murder but you still find yourself second guessing on who the murderer can be. Overall I found this to be a great story.

I can’t wait for the next instalment to come out.

I highly recommend this series to all my cozy friends.

I requested and received an advance reader copy of this book from Kensington Books and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another awesome read from Lynn Cahoun! This is one of my favorite series. Good solid mystery. Characters are well developed and are relatable. Plenty of twists and turns. The 15th in the Tourist Trap Mystery series is as fresh and exciting as the first. Thanks#netgalley and #Kensington for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

Lynn Cahoon does a great job in creating a new mystery in the Tourist Trap mystery series. It worked well overall with the other books. I enjoyed the mystery going on and the characters were what I was hoping for. I can’t wait to read more in the series.

Lynn Cahoon is one of my go-to authors and the Tourist Trap series is a favorite. I always enjoy a trip to the lovely coastal town of South Cove, California to visit Jill and the cast of recurring characters. Jill has the perfect job owning a bookstore/coffee shop with yummy treats. There is usually an event going on in town and this time it is a band competition with the winner getting a record deal. Winery owner and newspaper writer Darla is happy to have her boyfriend's band one of the competitors. But then the lead singer is murdered, and things go wacky for the weekend. Jill is "not investigating" but she seems to hear things that people say and she passes it off to her fiancé and head police detective Greg King. There are lots of hostile feelings and thus, a pool of suspects to ponder. And there are other side issues going on with other characters as well as an author signing event to make this a balanced read. One more year until Jill and Greg's wedding.
I received a copy for the purpose of an honest review and these are my thoughts.

Jill Gardner owns Coffee, Books, and More, and is happy with both her professional life and her personal life with her fiancé Greg King, the chief of police in their little town of South Cove, California. Being a tourist town, the business-to-business group meets each month in her shop to discuss how to bring more tourists and just general things which happen in all towns. Darla, who owns the winery, has a boyfriend named Matt who is a member of a band. Darla is a whiz with events, and she has organized a kite festival and a music festival on the same day, with a battle of the bands; the winner being given a record contract.

Everyone is excited for this, since it means more business, and even Jill is preparing her food truck to set up on the beach. But before the contest, a band member is found dead, and Greg soon discovers it's homicide. Now with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else, Greg doesn't know what it will take to find a killer. Of course, he has Jill, whom he's told to stay out of the investigation (but does she ever?) and not feeding her what he knows, she still manages to find clues. But will everything go south for Matt, who might be a suspect? Or will Greg and Jill find the killer before he's dragged off to jail...

This is the fifteenth book in the series, and I have read them all. Ms. Cahoon knows just how to put her readers into South Cove, and keep them there throughout the book. I'd love to visit the beach, so near to Jill's home, and even eat at the local diner (the only one in town). I might even visit sour Josh's antique shop, if there was time. But saying that, it is not enough. There is more in store for our intrepid protagonist Jill.

She has plenty of help at the shop, with amazing Deek (whom I've come to adore); ladies' man Troy, who shares his job with his police duties; and the other employees, including a new one named Tilly who brings questions along with her new job. The secondary plots in this series are just as important as the main one, bringing depth and even caring about the people behind them,

But the real question is, who killed the dead man? And why? Jill, who does her best to realize she needs to stay out the investigation (oh, sure), finds a clue that might be important; but she calls Greg immediately, so as not to have him think she's withholding information from him. Could it be the one that breaks open the case? And did I mention that before their wedding, Greg and Jill need to take a financial planning class? Will they finally figure out who-owns-what? (Just a side note on that one!)

Jill has her suspicions, and so does Greg. But which one of them will be right? Or will both of them be? When the ending comes, everything is put together nicely, like an easy puzzle that was just waiting for the right piece. And finally, the right piece is all it takes to give us something to look forward to in the next book. Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley, but this in no way influenced my review.