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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2568 KP) rated Thrown for a Scoop in Books

Jun 18, 2025  
Thrown for a Scoop
Thrown for a Scoop
Dana Mentink | 2024 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Is the Solution to an Old Mystery Here in Town?
Upper Sprocket is celebrating its centennial, and Trinidad Jones has created a special freak shake to celebrate the milestone. But before the celebration kicks off, a stranger wanders into her shake shop. He’s a true crime podcaster trying to track down clues on a fifty-year-old case, and he thinks that Trinidad’s soon to be brother-in-law, Doug, might know something about it. Since Doug isn’t good with strangers, Trinidad tries to warn him only to find that the stranger is dead when she arrives. Despite vowing to stay out of it, she can’t help but try to clear Doug. Can she do it?

I was pleased to see the author was self-publishing a fourth book in the series. It does a good job of updating us on the characters while also kicking the story off. We are treated to a well plotted story that kept me guessing until we reached the logical climax. And the characters are as quirky and charming as always. There were some continuity issues early on that felt like things left over from earlier drafts of the book, but once things really got going, I didn’t notice any more of them. This book will definitely make you crave ice cream, and I am curious what was in the breakfast ice cream that is featured in a fun subplot. Fans of this series will scoop up this book. I know I’m glad I did.
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Scholl Case: The Deadly End of a Marriage in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
TS
The Scholl Case: The Deadly End of a Marriage
Anja Reich-Osang | 2016
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-scholl-case-by-anja-reich-osang

<i><b>He smiles, but he doesn’t show what he has in his heart.</i></b>

I really enjoyed this book, but for reasons I can’t really pinpoint. It wasn’t like any other true crime book I’ve read, it was more like a memoir of Heinrich Scholl’s life. It was certainly a very dry read in parts, in terms of the actual crime, but I just quite liked reading about how well Heinrich succeed in his life. By the time we got the trial, I was actually very excited to see how it all played out, and I was really rushing through the pages (in a good way). The one big downfall with this book was that I don’t know enough about the history of Germany - the war and the fall of the Berlin wall etc - so a lot of the relevance to these events and Scholl’s life were a little lost on me.

Heinrich was abused mentally as a child and by his wife - even after all his successes in life, so it was kind of unstandable for him to fall into these relationships, with the lady from the town hall and with Nani. and call it “love”. Because he was never loved beforehand. It’s sad really. And his desperation to succeed as an older man was also very upsetting. But he was also wrong to string his wife along for years and years, if he was really unhappy, he should have tried harder to leave her.

Heinrich’s wife, Gitti, was a horrid woman! I understand the marriage they had was pretty much a complete sham, but she treated her husband like dirt. Another reason it’s no surprise Heinrich went looking for other relationships. But I also feel sorry for Gitti, not just because she was murdered, She lost all her family in the most depressing of ways and because she obviously had some troubles of wanting and not succeeding to have the perfect life, and this clearly damaged her. She clearly had some mental issues that made her flit between cursing Heinrich, wanting Heinrich back, and killing herself.

The crime of Brigitte Scholl’s death is certainly a strange one. Everything points to Heinrich as the murderer, but then it also doesn’t. I’m not sure I believe it was calculated murder. Manslaughter? Maybe. But murder, no. I actually find it hard to believe he did it at all, but maybe that’s because I have so much pity for him.

This book just leaves you wondering around with your own thoughts. It comes to a conclusion, the charge of murder, but it doesn’t lead you to any final decision. The choice is yours to make; is Heinrich Scholl guilty of murdering his wife and dog?

Thanks to Netgalley and Text Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.