A Tour to Die For
Author: Michelle Chouinard
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B
What I’m Talking About:
Capri’s back and she’s got a smashing new tour around San Francisco to lead, but the body wasn’t meant to be the main attraction for her tour group. Michelle Chouinard’s A Serial Killer’s Guide to San Francisco last year captured my notice, and I was more than eager to see this was a series and a new mystery for Capri and her talented team and detecting love interest to solve.
Most of the intro to the world of the series and characters took place in the first book so I recommend starting from the very beginning for those brimming with curiosity about this title and the rest.
A Tour to Die For brings back Capri, who solved a big murder case, but now just wants to get back to the singular well-plotted tours that go beyond the typical tourist guides of San Francisco. Her tours are doing pretty well lately- okay, because the Overkill Bill notoriety of her family didn’t diminish with her recent reopening of the case, but intensified the interest.
On her latest tour, a client claims to have seen a woman getting killed. Just another odd circumstance Capri thinks, but no, she can’t let it go. Who makes stuff up like that, right? Then, a woman’s body does turn up. She and Detective Petito are ready to track down the killer.
I loved how chapters scattered throughout are the transcripts of her tour stops and details about various colorful spots around San Francisco and a fun delve into Gold Rush history and the connection to ‘Frisco’. And, I definitely perked up when there was a missing artifact, a buried treasure possibility, and an archeological site as part of the investigation.
But… sigh… no idea if this was just me being in a mood. Capri got irritating for me sometimes. I didn’t like the way she got all steamed up because people were showing they cared that she was rushing into danger. She’s intrepid and that is commendable, but only up to a point. More of a minor niggle and the overall story was engaging.
All in all, it was another dose of San Francisco loving, a quirky mystery, and interesting characters especially with Capri and Petito building on their partnering in detecting and in a relationship. I hope there will be more to the series as I find these cozies interesting and entertaining.
My Rating: B
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
Capri Sanzio knows that when you give serial killer walking tours for a living, unexpected situations are more common than San Francisco’s famous fog. So, when one of her guests claims to see a woman being attacked during a tour, Capri remains unphased. The police search the apartment in question and find no evidence of anything amiss, so they chalk it up to a false report from a true crime fanatic looking to be a part of a case. And Capri thinks they might be right, since lately her tours have been attracting even more obsessives than usual–as it turns out, finding the actual serial killer who committed the “Overkill Bill” murders didn’t stop the constant questions about her grandfather’s supposed crimes, it only intensified them.
But Capri would never forgive herself if someone is in trouble and she walks away. Plus, something about the whole situation has every one of Capri’s investigative journalist instincts going haywire–why would someone lie about seeing an attack? So Capri starts to dig, and when her questions lead to a body, she finds herself at the center of another murder investigation.
Release Date: September 23, 2025
Publisher: Minotaur
Series: A Serial Killer’s Guide to San Francisco Mysteries #2
Genre: Mystery
Format(s): hardcover (336 pages), paperback (336 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley