Concession Stand Crimes: The Ballpark Mysteries
by Nicole Asselin
About Concession Stand Crimes
Concession Stand Crimes: The Ballpark Mysteries
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Abington, MA
Pandamoon Publishing (June 22, 2022)
Paperback : 190 pages
ISBN-10 : 1950627519
ISBN-13 : 978-1950627516
Digital ASIN : B09VGHRQYP
HOT DOG, CRACKERJACK, BEER, and MURDER. PLAY BALL!
MADELINE BOUCHER is still reeling from her first few weeks of working for her family’s Independent League Baseball Team, the Abington Armadillos. She found a dead body and survived a kidnapping before finally clearing her brother of murder. She didn’t think anything could be as dramatic as that, but she was wrong.
Her parents have given her more responsibility in running ballpark events in the hopes that they could retire and leave the team in her hands. Her brother is moving on to the big leagues, so this is her time to shine. Her first task? Deal with a concession stand kerfuffle. Redmond Brewery heiress, Alaska Redmond, storms her way into the ballpark making demands.
The next day, the son of the concession manager finds Redmond’s body in one of the beer stands along the ballpark concourse. Again, Madeline finds herself immersed in an investigation. While the suspects start piling up, including a promising young player on the team, Madeline knows she must get involved. With the help of Davis, her new love interest and head of the security department, she delves deeper into the death of the heiress.
Trying to run team events, solve a murder, and have a normal life takes its toll as Madeline comes to depend on those in her baseball-loving community, including Bronia, her old family friend who runs a garden center and helps her make sense of things. She even chances a psychic for advice while at a Salem Warlock’s away game. Will anyone help her untangle the mess of suspects including the victim’s family?
Can she clear the name of the Abington Armadillos and start focusing on the season?
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Madeline Boucher has been doing well running her family’s Independent League Baseball Team, the Abington Armadillos. Well except for that murder and being kidnapped. She is eager to put the past incidents behind her and get back to the business of baseball. Her first order of business is a meeting with Alaska Redmond from Redmond Brewing who has stomped her way into the ballpark office demanding to see someone in charge immediately without an appointment. When she didn’t receive the expected response she stomps back out promising to return.
The next day the concession manager’s son finds Alaska in one of the beer stands on the concourse. But she isn’t shouting any demands because someone has shut her up permanently.
Not again. It happened in her ballpark so that means Madeline needs to investigate. She hopes her new beau, Davis, head of security will lend a helping hand and get this case wrapped up asap because she has a ballpark and team to run. Just praying that there isn’t a kidnapping this time.
The Boucher family is a strong family unit and while Nicole is taking care of the day-to-day operations at the ballpark her parents are always there to help or give advice or just be there cheering on their team. Her brother, who took a job in the big leagues is only a phone call away if needed too. He does come home this time to introduce his new girlfriend to the family. I really enjoy this family dynamic.
The death of Alaska Redmond had a lot of twists and turns and several suspects. When I realized where the plot was heading I was so angry. Not for the way the story was written but by the situations happening on the pages. If a story moves your emotions the way this one did me you know it is good.
While at this time in my life baseball is watched on television and not at the ballpark but we did go to a minor league game a few years ago and that is the ballpark that forms in my head while reading the books in this series. The author’s descriptions feel so familiar.
The one downfall with this book is that it needs one more trip through by an editor. There is some repetition and wrong words used and some grammar issues to be cleaned up. The errors messed up the flow of the book, keeping it from being a perfect escape.
Concession Stand Crimes 
Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent
About Nicole Asselin
Nicole Asselin spent her formative high school years in the middle of Pennsylvania but always identified with her New England roots. Nicole’s family is originally from Connecticut, and her Grandpa Asselin introduced her to the Red Sox nation where she has been a member for her whole life and her Grandma Asselin introduced her to the world of mystery novels. Now those two loves are combined into her new Ballpark Mystery series.
Nicole graduated from Curry College in Milton Mass with a degree in English/Creative Writing, minoring in Dance in 2004. She also attended George Mason University and received a Master’s in Arts Management. She worked in the Government sector for over ten years before transitioning to Healthcare. Now working just outside of Boston as a Technical Writer, she lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts with her three cats Julia, Jacques, and Madeline (no relation to the main character of her book).
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Sounds great, thank you for sharing.
I love baseball and cozies so I am so disappointed that this was not well edited. A mistake or two is understandable, especially with new writers. But I can’t stand it when there are so many that they me out of the story. I won’t be reading this as there are just too many other books to choose from. I had to stop reading a very popular writer, whose stories were good, but I just could not handle 10+ errors per book. Thank you so much for saving me from disappointment with your honest review.
How embarrassing that I left the word “take” out of the sentence when complaining about errors. I will chalk it up to the fact it is late at night and I am not a good typist.