It’s the dead season in Leavenworth, Washington. The throngs of Oktoberfest crowds have headed home, and the charming Bavarian streets are quiet and calm—momentarily. Villagers use the reprieve to drink in the crisp fall mountain air and prepare for the upcoming winter light festival. Soon the German-inspired shops and restaurants will be aglow with thousands of twinkling lights. Visitors will return to the northern Cascades to drink warm mulled cider and peruse the holiday markets. Brewer, Sloan Krause and her partner in crime Garrett Strong are using the slowdown to stock up on a new line of their signature craft beers at Nitro. They’re experimenting with a hoppy holiday pine and a chocolate hazelnut stout. The small brewery is alive with delicious scents and bubbling batches of brew.
Sloan is in her element. She loves the creativity and lowkey atmosphere at Nitro. Only that is soon threatened by the incumbent city councilmember Kristopher Cooper. Kristopher is running for re-election on a platform of making Leavenworth dry. Everyone in beertopia is fuming. Leavenworth’s economy relies on keeping the kegs flowing. Kristopher wants to banish beer, a policy that might just bankrupt the entire village. However, Kristopher turns up dead days before election night. Sloan quickly realizes that his murder isn’t the work of a stranger. Friends, family, and every other business owner had a motive to kill him, including none other than April Ablin, Leavenworth’s self-described ambassador of all things German. Sloan finds herself defending April and trying to sleuth out a killer amongst a group of familiar faces.[summary via Amazon]
In the third book in the Sloan Krause Mysteries, winter is approaching and it's all quiet in Leavenworth. Sloan and Garrett are looking forward the quieter months to get started on renovating the guest rooms, and of course come up with some new brews! However, it seems that life in Leavenworth is about to get interesting again... Local city councillor, Kristopher Cooper, is up for re-election and he promises to turn Leavenworth into a "dry" town. When Kristopher is found dead, Sloan begins to wonder who could have wanted him dead. With his unpopularity on the rise it could have been anyone...
This series has quickly skyrocketed to my favourite "new-to-me" series of 2019. I'm a non-beer drinker and yet, I can't help wanting more and more from Sloan, Garrett and everyone in Leavenworth.
Ellie Alexander hits all the right notes with Beyond a Reasonable Stout. There is a first class mystery to solve (who doesn't like when a disliked local is killed off, and there are suspects aplenty?), there is fantastic character development, mouthwatering beers and food, and the added mystery of Sloan's past. This all adds up to another great instalment in this series.
I enjoyed trying to solve the main mystery, but it is the mystery that is surrounding Sloan's past that is really intriguing me. I was madly flipping through the pages, trying to unravel what happened to Sloan when she was younger. I'm excited to see Ellie Alexander has up her sleeve for Sloan next!
If you haven't picked up the Sloan Krause Mysteries yet, you need to add them to your reading list right away!!! They can be read in any order. However, I encourage starting at the beginning. Alike to me, you will quickly devour them, as they are absolutely unputdownable reads!
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