Double Dipped by Terry Korth Fischer

Double Dipped by Terry Korth Fischer
One Scoop or Two)
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Accepting second best is good for her career, but first-grade teacher, Retta Curt, delays signing up for the disappointment. Given two weeks to reconsider her contract, she retreats to Gram’s cottage on Moon Lake, the last place she felt contentment. But the cottage is derelict; Cousin Julie, distant; childhood beaux, Dean, bitter; and Sweet Picks, the family ice cream stand, in danger of folding. Magruder, a surly newcomer, is buying and then neglecting properties until nothing remains of the idyllic lakeside community she remembers. When vandals target Sweet Picks, Retta’s dreams to recapture her happy childhood collapse, and the return to Moon Lake becomes a decision worse than accepting her teaching contract. Star-crossed, can she save the family business and rediscover happiness, or is Retta destined for a second-best future?

Ice cream is more than a sweet treat. Sometimes it’s the key to reinventing yourself!

The mystery elements of the storyline were well done. I especially enjoyed seeing how small-town politics complicated Retta’s attempts to figure out who was vandalizing local businesses in Moon Lake. Knowing everyone in town makes cases like these even trickier to solve due to the risk of damaging long-standing friendships or irritating the loved ones of the accused. The author did a great job of showing how complicated this stuff can be and why one must move carefully in communities like these.

I would have liked to see more attention paid to the romantic subplot. The chemistry between Retta and Dean was promising at first. I smiled as they reminisced about their childhoods and flirted a bit. It would have been helpful to see the tension between them continue to build later on in the plot. While I’m not the sort of reader who needs to see everything wrapped up neatly, there was room here to be clearer about what might happen to them next.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that explored the quiet, peaceful summers that so many characters enjoyed at Moon Lake. It was the sort of community where children could play outside all day without any grownup interference and where neighbors looked out for one another. The wholesomeness of it all was lovely and made for a perfect setting for the more serious elements of the plot that were revealed later on.

This is part of the One Scoop or Two series. It can be read as a standalone work.

Double Dipped was a lighthearted summer read.