The Soundtrack to the Record Shop Mysteries by Olivia Blacke

Music and coffee – can you think of a better combination? I can’t! When I first imagined Sip & Spin Records, the vinyl records shop/coffee café at the heart of the Record Shop Mysteries (Vinyl Resting Place, A Fatal Groove, and Rhythm and Clues), I wanted to create a place I would enjoy spending my day (constant string of dead bodies notwithstanding) and everything snapped into place. I created this playlist over on Spotify to share some of the inspiration and little musical Easter eggs you may or may not have noticed throughout the first three books in the series.

• Violent Femmes’s “American Music” came out before Juni was born, but that doesn’t keep her from wearing the concert T-shirt in Vinyl Resting Place. This poppy song has a great beat to go with some light breaking and entering and is the ultimate anthem for a record shop owner.
• Teddy Garza and Juni sing along to “Hey Jealousy” by Gin Blossoms in the car, and the album gets a reprise in A Fatal Groove when Teddy gifts the concert T-shirt to Juni. Although Teddy is part of a complicated love triangle with Juni, he’s too sweet to be jealous. So why’s this song on the playlist? Juniper, like most of the women in her family, was named after a flower. And juniper berries are what gin is made of, which makes a juniper flower an actual gin blossom. What can I say? I can’t pass up a good pun no matter how subtle!

Once in the record shop, there’s always a variety of fun songs playing on the turntable.

• Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s joyful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” fits perfectly into an island-themed day at Sip & Spin Records, along with the drink special of the day: Don’t Worry, Be Frappé. Also, this is a great place to give a shoutout to my amazing audiobook narrator Nicol Zanzarella who never skips a beat no matter what I throw at her!
• Queen’s “We Will Rock You” playing in a music store needs no explanation.
• Also overheard in the shop in A Fatal Groove is The Smashing Pumpkins’s “Today.” Along with Juni’s sunny outlook, it’s easy to see how any day at Sip & Spin is a great one. The Smashing Pumpkins come back for an encore in Rhythm and Clues as one of Juni’s shirts and the inspiration for the drink of the day, Smashing Pumpkins Spice Latte.

Creating fun, musically-themed, punny coffee (and tea) specials of the day like Smashing Pumpkins Spice Latte is one of Juni’s responsibilities—along with solving the occasional murder. Some of my favorite drinks in the series are:

• “I Only Want To Be With You,” as sung by Hootie and the Blowfish, inspired I Only Want To Be With Brew, a simple drip coffee to start your day off right.
• Cappuccino Take Me Away and its inspiration, “Cowboy Take Me Away” by The Chicks, always makes me think of the cowboy hat that Beau Russell wears.
• Then there’s Cherry on, My Wayward Son. Not only is a chocolate cherry latte my idea of heaven, but “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas is the song that keeps on giving and inspires not one but three drink specials in Rhythm and Clues.

Plus, there’s that pivotal karaoke scene in Rhythm and Clues (IYKYK!) where the whole town gets involved.

• What better way to celebrate everyone in Cedar River coming together than Pat Benatar’s “We Belong?”
• Just like Teddy got his song with “Hey Jealousy,” his counterpart in the love triangle, Beau, gets John Legend’s “All of Me” which will make the crowd swoon at karaoke night.
• As long as we’re in a party mood, let’s throw “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus on the list and let everyone sing along.

Cozies are riddled with clues to how to solve the murder, but the Record Shop Mysteries are also riddled with clues about the scene embedded in the drink specials names.

• All My Ex-pressos Live in Texas (inspired by “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” by George Strait) just so happens to be the drink special on the same day when Juni has a drink with her ex? What a coincidence!
• Juni makes a pun out of “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” by James Brown when she enlists her sisters in joining her for a little late-night criminal mischief.
• And, of course, Rhythm and Clues has the ultimate earworm and tagline with “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine.

With over a hundred and twenty song references (and counting!) sprinkled throughout the series, it was difficult to come up with a single album-length soundtrack that encompassed the first three books in the Record Shop Mysteries. I hope some of these songs not only get you singing along but inspire you to create your own playlist for Rhythm and Clues!

About the Record Shop Mystery series:

Vinyl Resting Place: The Record Shop Mystery series kicks off with this book. When Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie put all their beans in one basket to open Sip & Spin Records, a record-slash-coffee shop in Cedar River, Texas, they knew there could be some scratches on the track, but no one was expecting to find a body deader than disco in the supply closet. Music and mocha seem like a blend that should be “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” but caught up in a murder investigation with her family and their life savings on the line, Juni wonders if she might be on the “Highway to Hell” instead.

A Fatal Groove: The second book in the series, this cozy mystery is one for the record. It’s springtime in Cedar River, Texas. The annual Bluebonnet Festival is brewing and the whole town is in harmony. Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie thought opening Sip & Spin Records was going to be their biggest hurdle, but the Frappuccino hits the fan when the mayor drops dead—poisoned by their delicious coffee. Between the town festivities, a good old-fashioned treasure hunt, and an accidental cow in the mix, Juni will have to pull out all the stops to find the mayor’s killer.

Rhythm and Clues: Third in the oh-so-smooth cozy mystery Record Shop series, Rhythm and Clues will have you dancing to the beat. It’s been five whole months since the last murder and Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie have been humming along when disaster strikes again. Sip & Spin Records is struggling, but the sisters aren’t ready to face the music and admit defeat. When a predatory investor dies outside their shop, Juni is determined to solve the case. Up until now, the Jessup sisters have been playing it by ear, but with the whole town watching, can they catch a killer before he strikes again?