Review – Trouble in Store

Carol Cox in her new book “Trouble in Store” published by Bethany House Publishers takes us into the life of Melanie Ross.

From the back cover:  Fired from her most recent governess position, Melanie Ross must embrace her last resort: the Arizona mercantile she inherited from her cousin. But Caleb Nelson is positive he inherited the mercantile, and he’s not about to let some obstinate woman with newfangled ideas mess up all he’s worked for. He’s determined to get Melanie married off as soon as possible, and luckily there are plenty of single men in town quite interested in taking her off his hands.

The problem is, Caleb soon realizes he doesn’t want her to marry up with any of them. He’s drawn to Melanie more every day, and he has to admit some of her ideas for the store unexpectedly offer positive results.

But someone doesn’t want the store to succeed, and what used to be just threatening words has escalated into deliberate destruction and lurkers in the night. When a body shows up on the mercantile steps–and the man obviously didn’t die from natural causes–things really get dangerous. Will Melanie and Caleb’s business–and budding romance–survive the trouble that’s about to come their way?

The Mercantile was half owned by her cousin who died and left his half to Melanie.  Since she has been fired and blacklisted in Ohio she decides to go to Arizona to run her half of the store.  The other half ownership of the store has shifted to Caleb, as his Uncle also died.  Now Melanie and Caleb clash over how the Mercantile should be run even though Melanie has great ideas that Caleb agrees with.  So Caleb tries to marry off Melanie to find that he really doesn’t want her to go.  Then they find a body and set out to find who else wants to ruin the Mercantile.  Ms. Cox has crafted a fine mystery in that both Melanie and Caleb have to work together to figure out who wants to ruin the Mercantile.  There is history in the running of the Mercantile and how these two characters relate to each other throughout the story is what really keeps us interested and flipping pages.  The small town of Cedar Ridge, Arizona and the people who live there become real and are brought to life by a gifted storyteller.  On top of everything Ms. Cox has also given us a romance.  I really liked “Trouble In Store” and I look forward to more stories from the very talented Ms. Cox.