8th in Series
Setting - Japan
Publisher: Golden Tip Press (March 4, 2025)
Print length: 324 pages
Digital ASIN: B0DT2DW97B
About Vanishing Into the 100% Dark
Bean to chocolate maker Felicity Koerber has been invited to be part of a chocolate festival in Tokyo. It’s a big deal for a Texas gal with a chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand, so a whole group of her friends come along to support her. It’s intimidating enough to be giving a class on chocolate making with the help of a translator – she also stumbles across the scene of a murder, where a quirky group of international actors and stunt performers are making a monster movie. Felicity has already solved half a dozen murders back in Texas, so at this point her friends basically expect her to get involved – even before the young media influencer in Felicity’s group becomes the main suspect. Felicity has taken on the role of chaperone for Chloe, so she can’t imagine how she could explain what went wrong to the girl’s mother. Which gives her even more motivation to figure out the real killer.
In the meantime, things get complicated at the chocolate festival when a rival chocolate maker tries to get her disqualified from the awards competition – and claims that her amateur sleuth status is bringing undesirables into the festival. And things are even more complicated as the stress of being in an unfamiliar place brings out secrets about Felicity’s friends – and her fiancé.
Ash says, “Don’t you want to see me in a kaiju costume?”
“Not necessarily,” I say.
“I do,” Hudson says. “I’m always up to take video of crazy
stunts.”
Logan moves towards the front of the building. Today, one of the
women we met yesterday is sitting at the reception desk. That is why the door
was locked last time. Everyone – the receptionist included – had been invited
to lunch.
I nod at her and give a more confident, “Ohayo gozaimaus.”
She replies, “Ohayo gozaimaus,” back and smiles at us until it
becomes clear that we are headed for the staircase, at which point she races
from around the reception desk and manages to get between us and the stairs.
She makes a definitely not cross with her arms. She sounds upset, but I don’t
understand what she’s saying.
“Sumimasen,” I tell her, another good general-purpose word that
includes the meaning of I’m sorry.
We back away down the hallway, offering apologetic mini-bows.
Logan says under his breath, “We’ll have to find somebody
willing to escort us upstairs.”
I say, “Maybe we can manage that later. It sounds like right now
we are destined to help Ash dress up like Godzilla.”
Logan points out, “Godzilla is a copywritten monster. Those
three suits we saw in the corner were all unique creations. Personally, I like
the one that looks like a turtle and a grasshopper had a baby.”
I say, “But one of them kind of looks like a dinosaur. Which is
what I always thought Godzilla was.”
“Nope,” Logan says. “Gorilla whale.”
“You didn’t know that until today,” I insist.
“Did so,” Logan says. “I told you I like monster movies.”
“What else don’t I know about you?” I ask. My tone is teasing,
but I really am still worried I’ve been an unobservant girlfriend and now
fiancé.
He says, “I hate wearing socks around the house, I failed fourth
grade, and I’m afraid of snakes. So if we do ever get to take that guy up on
his offer to visit origin in Brazil, I’m probably going to be the one hiding
behind you.”
I say, “As long as you’re willing to squash the bugs.” I
shudder. “Not that I’m afraid of them. I just get all grossed out over the
actual squashing.”
“Noted,” Logan says. “Anything else I should note for future
reference?”
“Did you really fail fourth grade?” I ask.
Logan says, “I really disliked the teacher, so I spent a lot of
time drawing planes.”
“I can sympathize with that. I had this one English teacher that
disagreed with everything I said in my papers, so I started just writing notes
in class and turning those in as my assignments. I got an A on every one.”
“Fee,” Logan flashes me a mischievous grin. “Don’t tell me you
didn’t actually read the books.”
“Guilty,” I say. I should be embarrassed to admit this,
considering how much ribbing I’ve given Logan for not liking to read fiction.
I’ve actually gotten him into reading, at least occasionally, and this morning,
I noticed him perusing the titles in the stacks of mystery novels. But we’re
being honest, and that feels good.
Logan opens the door heading back into the sound stage. Ash and
Hudson are still waiting for the writers to finish their huddle. By the time we
walk over to join them, the writers are standing up, sharing a few last jokes,
and heading off to turn over their work to the assistant director.
Hudson asks Ash, “So which one of these monsters strikes your
fancy?”
Ash points at the one that had fallen over. “Who wouldn’t want
to look like a butterfly dragon?”
“I think that one’s supposed to be a girl,” Hudson says.
“So?” Ash says. “Help me figure out how to get into this
thing.”
Hi! I’m Felicity Koerber, owner of Greetings and
Felicitations, a craft chocolate business out of Galveston, Texas. Yes, THAT chocolate shop, the one where all
the murders happened. But that’s not
what I want to talk about today. Yes, I
understand, it seems like I’ve been involved in solving a lot of murders. I can take questions on that after we discuss
why I love to travel. Y’all. Okay.
Yes, I have been called a mega murder magnet by a whole section of the
true crime community and, no, the Death by Chocolate Challenge is not a real
thing. I mean, yes, people have started
buying my 100% chocolate bars and eating the whole thing on camera, but no, no
harm has come to anyone who has chosen to do so. At least not to my knowledge.
I’m excited to be in Japan.
As the protagonist of The Bean to Bar Mysteries, I have been
saying how much I love to travel for seven books now, and my author has finally
let me leave the country on the page, instead of just talking about the
chocolate sourcing trips I’ve taken between books. I have been suggesting to her that there
needs to be a book set in a rainforest, where I actually get to show what is
involved in chocolate sourcing, since she usually has me show a different
aspect of chocolate in each book, and here we are book 8, I’m finally getting
to travel and I’m going to a country that only has one small experimental
greenhouse-based cacao farm – that I don’t even have time to go see. You guys pull for her letting me go to origin
in an upcoming book, soon. Or at least
letting me go back to Japan and actually tour those greenhouses. Okay?
For now, I can’t complain about the setup for the Japan
trip. I’ve been asked to teach a class
on craft chocolate making, and one of my chocolate bars is up for an
international award. So yeah, this is a
legit side of my craft chocolate business to show off.
And a number of my friends have come along for the
ride. My fiancé is here, of course, plus
his sister and her husband. And another
couple we’re friends with. And Ash, the
blogger and podcaster who has an entire podcast dedicated just to cases I’ve
been involved in. He’s not about to miss
the possibility of another case happening without him being there to witness
it. He is helpful in an emergency, so I
don’t mind. And if I can somehow avoid
there being anything unsavory happening during this trip, he’s promised to
babysit my booth at the festival, so I can spend some time exploring.
Now where I’ve clearly lost my mind is agreeing to bring
Chloe. Not just agreeing to let her get
on the plane with us – agreeing to chaperone her for the entire trip. Chloe is a 17-year-old YouTuber. To say she is headstrong is putting it
mildly. The last time I forbade her to
do something, she completely ignored me, putting herself in danger because she
felt it was the right thing to do. Which
I have to respect. And in a moment of
weakness, I agreed to let her come do a collab with some cat-channel Youtubers.
Parts of this trip have already gone off the rails. The minute we landed, some British guy stole
my phone and ran off with it. And my
fiancé almost immediately ran into a former client from when he was in private
security. And it seems like said client
might be in trouble. I can see in his
eyes that he is worried, that he considers this person he hasn’t seen in years
his responsibility. I respect that he’s
that kind of person, and that’s part of why I fell in love with him, but for
once, I would just like to go about my business without having to worry that
he’s putting himself in danger.
I’m trying to track down my phone, and I get the idea that
the thief might have gone into a building across the street from the chocolate
festival. You know me – I have to
investigate. I find myself surrounded by
movie props, including a scale model of this part of the city. The detail is amazing. And there is a huge dinosaur-like monster
head swinging from a crane. And a tube
with a half-formed monster inside. But
no sign of the guy who took my phone.
Until – I notice a prone figure.
But when I go outside to report what happened, the guy disappears. I know he wasn’t breathing. So where did he go? And who is going to believe me when I say
that he just vanished … into the dark?
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Sounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me share a little bit from Felicity's point of view. She is such a fun character to write!
ReplyDelete