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Dinked: Serenity Acres—Where Secrets Barely Stay Hidden
If you love cozy mysteries, welcome to Serenity Acres in the town of Southpoint, where everyone is a hot mess with a secret to hide.
Secrets of Serenity Acres, dives deep into the deadly tensions between pickleball and tennis players in the bucolic, ball-buster neighborhood. When Margot Fields tries to push through a plan to expand the local courts, secrets start to come to the surface and residents start to unravel. It’s a death match to the end, but who will come out unscathed in this fun, feisty thriller?
Secrets of Serenity Acres, dives deep into the deadly tensions between pickleball and tennis players in the bucolic, ball-buster neighborhood. When Margot Fields tries to push through a plan to expand the local courts, secrets start to come to the surface and residents start to unravel. It’s a death match to the end, but who will come out unscathed in this fun, feisty thriller?
- GenresMystery
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 15, 2025
1 person is currently reading
1181 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 2, 2025
Who knew a community of Pickle Ball enthusiasts could be such a hotbed of mystery and intrigue?! Entertaining beach/vacation read with some fun characters and shocking plot twists. Totally recommend.
May 31, 2025
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Serenity Acres is a modern-day Peyton Place with everyone all up in everybody’s business with a side of pickleball. The tennis players are not happy sharing their courts, so Margot Fields comes up with a plan that would give tennis players and pickleball players their own courts, along with some other amenities. She just needs to get the project approved. Not everyone is on board, and the community starts to fall apart when secrets start to be revealed.
Will this project get off the ground? Or will Margot’s plan come to a screeching halt?
Cozy mysteries are my favorite genre, and they have a basic formula. This story follows a couple of the rules – it takes place in a small, close-knit community of Serenity Acres and has an interesting pickleball theme. The story contains humor in the right places. Everyone has secrets to investigate, but the murder doesn’t happen until late in the book. What takes it out of the cozy realm for me is the explicit language and adult scenes. In cozy mysteries, violence and sexual content take place off the page, making the story lighthearted and suitable for a larger audience. I have always felt that a cozy mystery needs to be written so that I could hand it to my grandmother and she could enjoy it as much as I did, and it wouldn’t make her blush or be upset. For these reasons, I would classify Dinked: Serenity Acres as a hard-boiled mystery, not a cozy mystery.
As a hard-boiled mystery, this story is an entertaining read full of colorful characters with secrets and ulterior motives. Margot has come up with a great plan that will benefit the community, but there is more to that story. Daphne is the long-standing president of the Serenity Acres Grounds Association, and she is against Margot’s plan, but has a hard time attending any of the meetings. Her life is in flux, and wine helps her get through the days and nights. Ilonka Voss is a heck of a pickleball player who hates to lose, but is a “steadfast guardian of tradition”. She, with Brock Chen, represented the broad divide in the community between those who “embrace progress and those who want things to stay the same”. Ilona and her husband, Gunther, have quite a history. That is just a small sampling of the well-crafted characters Ms. Quast has created. Every character in this story is hiding something, has a huge secret, or twists things up to create drama just for fun, and Margot is in the middle of it all.
Margot is being threatened and is trying to figure out who has it out for her. She really doesn’t know whom she can trust. The community comes together for events like Salsa Night and Courts Send-Off night. Margot does her best to keep her eyes and ears open to find out who is behind the threats. There are twists after twists, and each secret revealed turns the story in a different direction. Then something dreadful and heartwrenching happens, and there’s only one witness. A witness who cannot tell anyone what happened. I was greatly conflicted as I turned the final page.
Dinked: Serenity Acres is a bizarre story filled with off-beat characters brought together in a small town, where pickleball is the hottest craze. Peyton Place meets Desperate Housewives kind of on steroids. With ebbs and flows, drama, secrets, threats, embezzlement, murder, and more, this is an enjoyable read. This is Ms. Quast’s debut novel. I am intrigued to see what she writes next.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC.
*Explicit scenes and language
Serenity Acres is a modern-day Peyton Place with everyone all up in everybody’s business with a side of pickleball. The tennis players are not happy sharing their courts, so Margot Fields comes up with a plan that would give tennis players and pickleball players their own courts, along with some other amenities. She just needs to get the project approved. Not everyone is on board, and the community starts to fall apart when secrets start to be revealed.
Will this project get off the ground? Or will Margot’s plan come to a screeching halt?
Cozy mysteries are my favorite genre, and they have a basic formula. This story follows a couple of the rules – it takes place in a small, close-knit community of Serenity Acres and has an interesting pickleball theme. The story contains humor in the right places. Everyone has secrets to investigate, but the murder doesn’t happen until late in the book. What takes it out of the cozy realm for me is the explicit language and adult scenes. In cozy mysteries, violence and sexual content take place off the page, making the story lighthearted and suitable for a larger audience. I have always felt that a cozy mystery needs to be written so that I could hand it to my grandmother and she could enjoy it as much as I did, and it wouldn’t make her blush or be upset. For these reasons, I would classify Dinked: Serenity Acres as a hard-boiled mystery, not a cozy mystery.
As a hard-boiled mystery, this story is an entertaining read full of colorful characters with secrets and ulterior motives. Margot has come up with a great plan that will benefit the community, but there is more to that story. Daphne is the long-standing president of the Serenity Acres Grounds Association, and she is against Margot’s plan, but has a hard time attending any of the meetings. Her life is in flux, and wine helps her get through the days and nights. Ilonka Voss is a heck of a pickleball player who hates to lose, but is a “steadfast guardian of tradition”. She, with Brock Chen, represented the broad divide in the community between those who “embrace progress and those who want things to stay the same”. Ilona and her husband, Gunther, have quite a history. That is just a small sampling of the well-crafted characters Ms. Quast has created. Every character in this story is hiding something, has a huge secret, or twists things up to create drama just for fun, and Margot is in the middle of it all.
Margot is being threatened and is trying to figure out who has it out for her. She really doesn’t know whom she can trust. The community comes together for events like Salsa Night and Courts Send-Off night. Margot does her best to keep her eyes and ears open to find out who is behind the threats. There are twists after twists, and each secret revealed turns the story in a different direction. Then something dreadful and heartwrenching happens, and there’s only one witness. A witness who cannot tell anyone what happened. I was greatly conflicted as I turned the final page.
Dinked: Serenity Acres is a bizarre story filled with off-beat characters brought together in a small town, where pickleball is the hottest craze. Peyton Place meets Desperate Housewives kind of on steroids. With ebbs and flows, drama, secrets, threats, embezzlement, murder, and more, this is an enjoyable read. This is Ms. Quast’s debut novel. I am intrigued to see what she writes next.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC.
*Explicit scenes and language
September 29, 2025
Crystal Quast's 'Dinked' is a delicious, razor-sharp dissection of upper-middle-class suburban life. Set in the fictional town of Southpoint, Quast plunges readers into a world of perfectly manicured lawns and glittering facades, where every character struggles to maintain appearances even as their lives are falling apart. From closeted affairs to dark secrets and embezzlement, everyone in Serenity Acres is trying desperately to keep up with the Joneses - and with devastating consequences.
At the heart of the novel is a battle over the expansion of the local pickleball courts, a seemingly innocent proposal that threatens to upend the lives of every character in the novel. With each chapter told from a different character's perspective, Quast expertly peels back the layers of each person's carefully constructed persona, revealing the desperate, all-too-human struggles beneath.
Quast's prose crackles with energy and wit, delivering laugh-out-loud lines and astute observations in equal measure. Each character is beautifully rendered, from the wine mom desperately trying to keep up appearances, to the gay couple sneaking around. A masterclass in satire, skewering the superficiality and hypocrisy of suburban life with devastating accuracy.
'Dinked' is a wickedly funny and deeply insightful portrait of a community teetering on the brink of chaos. With its biting wit, keen observations, and unforgettable characters, Quast has crafted a satirical masterpiece that will leave readers laughing, cringing, and reflecting on the fragile nature of social status and the price we pay for keeping up appearances.
At the heart of the novel is a battle over the expansion of the local pickleball courts, a seemingly innocent proposal that threatens to upend the lives of every character in the novel. With each chapter told from a different character's perspective, Quast expertly peels back the layers of each person's carefully constructed persona, revealing the desperate, all-too-human struggles beneath.
Quast's prose crackles with energy and wit, delivering laugh-out-loud lines and astute observations in equal measure. Each character is beautifully rendered, from the wine mom desperately trying to keep up appearances, to the gay couple sneaking around. A masterclass in satire, skewering the superficiality and hypocrisy of suburban life with devastating accuracy.
'Dinked' is a wickedly funny and deeply insightful portrait of a community teetering on the brink of chaos. With its biting wit, keen observations, and unforgettable characters, Quast has crafted a satirical masterpiece that will leave readers laughing, cringing, and reflecting on the fragile nature of social status and the price we pay for keeping up appearances.
April 25, 2025
A great little read with interesting characters and a a plot full of surprises. Looking forward to what comes next!
June 3, 2025
Great book that kept me entertained to the end. Loved all the twists and turns. If you are looking for a fun read, put this on your list.
April 16, 2025
I. AM. HOOKED! From the very first chapter of Dinked, I was drawn in to the mysterious world of Serenity Acres!
If you love a good mystery, this book is for you! With twists and turns, this novel keeps your eyes on the page and the want, no, NEED, to continue reading and see what happens next! The compelling characters will keep
you laughing and dying to get to the next chapter, I couldn’t put it down.
Crystal Quast is an author to watch out for and I hope she’s already working on her next novel! I’ll be the first to preorder!
If you love a good mystery, this book is for you! With twists and turns, this novel keeps your eyes on the page and the want, no, NEED, to continue reading and see what happens next! The compelling characters will keep
you laughing and dying to get to the next chapter, I couldn’t put it down.
Crystal Quast is an author to watch out for and I hope she’s already working on her next novel! I’ll be the first to preorder!
June 11, 2025
I loved getting to know these scheming characters who have loads of hidden secrets. Their lives seem connected by a web of dubious choices. You won't want to put this soap-opera-in-book-form down. An excellent summer read for the beach, pool or patio.
April 17, 2025
What a treat it was to get caught up in the intrigue at the Serenity Acres tennis club. The characters are vividly drawn and each of the secrets is fascinating. Quast ties it all together in a great read. Oh,and there are some delightful “Easter eggs” in the story…I won’t give them away, except to say the scarf was apricot.
August 4, 2025
The Review
This was such a compelling and engaging cozy mystery thriller. The balance of wit and charm that the story brought to life, both in the humor of the character interactions and the drama as tensions rise between them all, made this a thrilling read. The Imagery in the author’s writing allowed the reader to feel fully immersed in this small community, and the author did a great job of making sure the violence and more mature content happened off-page, leaning heavily into the cozy mystery atmosphere that the genre is known for.
What drove this narrative forward so well was the character development and the theme of change that the book embraced. The ways these characters either fought against change or tried to embrace it speak to the struggle so many communities have with adopting new approaches as the years go by. The drama and the tension between this cast of characters, whether it was protagonist Margot and her rival Daphne, each of whom have their struggles behind closed doors, or the competitiveness of those who see pickleball as a progressive step in a new sport or those who see it as the death of tennis as a whole, these dynamic character events infuse both drama and humor into the narative, which helped elevate the overall mystery of these threats and the twisted nature of the town’s secrets.
The Verdict
Visceral, humorous, and mysterious, author Crystal Quast’s “Dinked: Serenity Acres” is a must-read cozy mystery thriller. The twists and turns in the narrative, the shocking revelations about the town and its citizens, and the complex web of connections among the citizens of this town will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the book’s final shocking pages.
This was such a compelling and engaging cozy mystery thriller. The balance of wit and charm that the story brought to life, both in the humor of the character interactions and the drama as tensions rise between them all, made this a thrilling read. The Imagery in the author’s writing allowed the reader to feel fully immersed in this small community, and the author did a great job of making sure the violence and more mature content happened off-page, leaning heavily into the cozy mystery atmosphere that the genre is known for.
What drove this narrative forward so well was the character development and the theme of change that the book embraced. The ways these characters either fought against change or tried to embrace it speak to the struggle so many communities have with adopting new approaches as the years go by. The drama and the tension between this cast of characters, whether it was protagonist Margot and her rival Daphne, each of whom have their struggles behind closed doors, or the competitiveness of those who see pickleball as a progressive step in a new sport or those who see it as the death of tennis as a whole, these dynamic character events infuse both drama and humor into the narative, which helped elevate the overall mystery of these threats and the twisted nature of the town’s secrets.
The Verdict
Visceral, humorous, and mysterious, author Crystal Quast’s “Dinked: Serenity Acres” is a must-read cozy mystery thriller. The twists and turns in the narrative, the shocking revelations about the town and its citizens, and the complex web of connections among the citizens of this town will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the book’s final shocking pages.
May 31, 2025
Intriguing, complex, and highly entertaining, with a tantalizing underlayer of secrets throughout!
Dinked, the first book in author Crystal Quast’s new Serenity Acres cozy mystery series, is sly and clever and filled to capacity with tantalizing hidden secrets. The community residents seem to have taken Sir Michael Caine’s quote to heart. “Be a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.” There’s so much going on that is invisible, at first, to the naked eye.
As the debut novel in the series, the author has the daunting task of crafting a suitable fictional setting for the action and then populating it with the principal characters. Quast weaves a wonderful backdrop and diverse palette of players, with secrets and backstories that offer vast potential to draw upon for this book and the future. The characters are introduced organically as they interact with the main character, Margot Fields, and the resulting story is quite an ensemble effort. Still, it does take some time to develop the community and the myriad relationships; however, the payoff is well worth the reader’s patience and attention to the presented details. The catty repartee and double-edged barbs make for delicious dialogue, strongly reminding me of the women who lived on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives.With its many twists and turns and sophisticated, clever plot, I recommend DINKED to cozy mystery readers, especially those with an interest in pickleball or enjoy country club-style shenanigans.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.June 18, 2025
The intrigue builds from the beginning and the character development is excellent. As the story unfolds you get more involved in the characters and their lives. There's humour sprinkled in the dialogue and you want to get to the bottom of all the gossip and what lies beneath! Fresh and fun aren't usually what I would say about a mystery, but this book has it. Snappy, modern writing. Highly recommended.
April 24, 2025
I enjoyed the history of the various characters living in Serenity Acres. The story of Ilona and Gunther spanning from WwII to the current times was particularly moving. It was a big annoying that the author referred to Pickleball paddles as racquets. There are many secrets leading to blackmail in serenity acres. Overall it was a fairly easy read, but could have been better.
April 25, 2025
I enjoy most cozy mysteries; this one was a bit slow and I had a hard time keeping engaged with it. It’s written fairly well and the plot was okay, but it just didn’t grab me that much. I did like the pickleball aspect of the story. I was provided an ARC, which I really appreciate, but these opinions are my own.
January 24, 2026
While it started off well, I found there were too many characters to keep track of, and when they paired off with each other behind their partners' back that added to the confusion. Going back in time to explain the back plot would happen suddenly, again making it hard to keep track of the plot.
May 15, 2025
I enjoyed reading this story. I found twists and buried secrets in this debut book. This was a great escape and I am looking forward to finding more books by this author!
December 9, 2025
Such a great first book! I'm happy to see this is the start of a series, because I can't wait to see what happens next!
First, I like that this cozy mystery brings something I haven't seen before to the genre...a setting based primarily around the pickleball/tennis world. Sure, there's been passing mentions of the sport(s) in other mysteries, but this one really brings it to the forefront. I like it when I find something new in the cozy world.
Also, the characters are great! Main character Margo is the perfect person to helm this book; she's trying to expand the local pickleball courts, and uncovers lots of secrets to look into and resolve. Other characters in the community are interesting as well. I especially enjoyed Ilona and Gunther and their backstory, and hope to see more of them in future books.
The mystery itself was good as well. There was plenty for Margo to investigate, and once all was revealed, everything made sense.
Definitely 5-stars for this introduction to a promising new cozy series with lots of pickleball and a few "Desperate Housewives" vibes!
First, I like that this cozy mystery brings something I haven't seen before to the genre...a setting based primarily around the pickleball/tennis world. Sure, there's been passing mentions of the sport(s) in other mysteries, but this one really brings it to the forefront. I like it when I find something new in the cozy world.
Also, the characters are great! Main character Margo is the perfect person to helm this book; she's trying to expand the local pickleball courts, and uncovers lots of secrets to look into and resolve. Other characters in the community are interesting as well. I especially enjoyed Ilona and Gunther and their backstory, and hope to see more of them in future books.
The mystery itself was good as well. There was plenty for Margo to investigate, and once all was revealed, everything made sense.
Definitely 5-stars for this introduction to a promising new cozy series with lots of pickleball and a few "Desperate Housewives" vibes!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews