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VANISHING INTO THE 100% DARK
By Amber Royer

Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Golden Tip Press
Pages: 288
Publication Date: March 4, 2025

SYNOPSIS

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 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 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.

Honda the calico cat makes an appearance on the movie set, making Felicity homesick for her pet bunny, left at home. But the cat may know more about what happened than she is letting on. Can Felicity solve the murder in time to keep Chloe from getting arrested, while making things right with the people she cares about, and presenting a good showing at the chocolate festival?

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REVIEW

What fun to go to Japan with Felicity & and her friends who are part of her life in Texas and her specialty-chocolate shop, Greetings and Felicitations. As a relative newbie in the business, Felicity is honored to be invited to exhibit at a international chocolate festival, as well as to teach a class.

Felicity hopes that nothing will go awry, but of course it does. There wouldn’t be a mystery or another fun story featuring her and her friends without something going awry. A clever plot device in all the mysteries is that they are tied to a book that mysteriously appears or someone hands to Felicity.

The mystery in this story centers on the death of a stuntman, who’s also the thief who just happened to steal Felicity’s phone at the airport in Japan. There’s a secondary mystery as well – someone is trying to harm a former client of Logan’s, so he wants to help keep her safe. Those two plot lines don’t connect, and as a reader I thought this story could have stood strong on just the one main plot line that has Felicity so entangled with the discovery of the body and the investigation.

One of the things I particularly liked is the melding of so much Japanese culture and language into the narrative and dialogue. It’s just enough to educate without making the reader feel like they’re in a classroom, and the details about the monster movies made in Japan was quite fascinating to this reader who dabbled in filmmaking eons ago. Kudos to the author for all the research that was obviously done to gather information and keep facts accurate.

I also marveled at Felicity taking the dive off the top of the building. Royer does a great job of building suspense at that moment, and I couldn’t help but think, “Wait! Felicity can’t die… but how…?” The “how” is perfect.

The new characters introduced in this tale are all wonderful additions to the wider cast, especially Chloe, the young YouTuber. She’s impulsive, constantly pushing the boundaries of what a sixteen-year-old should be allowed to do, but also smart and willing to help with anything Felicity needs in the investigation. Hopefully, she will show up in future books.

And the cat. Can’t forget the cat. Any story that has a cat playing an important role is always a fun read for me.

This is a good book for people who like a light mystery, a touch of romance, and a vicarious visit to Japan.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse space opera series and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She is also the author of Story Like a Journalist: a Workbook for Novelists and has co-authored a chocolate-related cookbook with her husband. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach.

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