Author: Tara Lush
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643856186
Crooked Lane Books
320 Pages
$17.59; $12.99 Amazon
December 8, 2020
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When Lana Lewis' best -- and most difficult -- employee abruptly quits and goes to work for the competition just days before the Sunshine State Barista Championship, her café's chances of winning the contest are creamed. In front of a gossipy crowd in the small Florida town of Devil's Beach, Lana's normally calm demeanor heats to a boil when she runs into the arrogant java slinger. Of course, Fabrizio "Fab" Bellucci has a slick explanation for jumping ship. But when he's found dead the next morning under a palm tree in the alley behind Lana's café, she becomes the prime suspect,
Even the island's handsome police chief isn't quite certain of her innocence. But Lana isn't the only one in town who was angry with Fabrizio. Jilted lovers, a shrimp boat captain, and a surfer with ties to the mob are all suspects as trouble brews on the beach.
With her stoned hippie dad, a Shih Tzu named Stanley, and a new, curious barista sporting a punk rock aesthetic at her side, Lana's prepared to turn up the heat to catch the real killer. After all, she is a former award-winning reporter. As scandal hangs over her beachside café, can Lana clear her name and win the championship -- or will she come to a bitter end?
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Lana Lewis returned home to Devil's Beach, Florida from Miami after her marriage crumbled and she was laid off from her job at a top newspaper. Now she's running the coffee house her late mother started, and trying to do her best, especially when her barista, Fab, talks her into entering the state barista contest. Lana also hires a new barista, a strange woman named Erica who seems to have everything together -- including her ability to create great coffee art. But Fab isn't happy, and he lets Lana know about it.
The next day, Fab doesn't show up for work. When the local police chief, Noah Garcia, tells Lana he saw him working at a rival coffee house, she confronts Fab in front of a crowd. But then she leaves for Miami for an awards ceremony, hoping it will calm her down. When she returns the next morning she parks her car in her lot, only to find Fab's body. Shaken, she calls Noah and when the examination is completed, everyone thinks it was suicide. But Lana isn't sure. She doesn't believe that someone with a larger-than-life personality like Fab would kill himself. With the help of Erica and Lana's hippie father, she's going to find a murderer...hopefully, the killer doesn't want to kill again, with her as the next target...
This is the first book in the series, and I really thought it started slow, so it took awhile to gain and hold my attention. But I stuck with it (I hate to not finish books) and I was pleased by the end. We have Lana, who's despondent over losing her job and depressed over her marriage ending, and she's sworn off older men like her husband. But Chief Noah is interesting to her, and she to him. So maybe she's rethinking that while trying not to.
She's also trying to run her business but isn't sure about her frothing skills. Fab was her key to getting everything right, and now he's gone. And with everyone shouting suicide except her -- and his distraught girlfriend Paige who tells people Lana killed him -- she has her own self-interest in finding the truth. She's also inherited his puppy Stanley, and the little guy is starting to grow on her.
I do like Lana, Noah, Erica, and most of the other characters although the jury is still out on her father. I'm not truly fond of a middle-aged man who's living like a hippie, but that's my own opinion (probably brought on because I had an awesome Dad myself, whom I bonded with and spent time with every day until I lost him. Still miss him; he was a rock to me).
The mystery is well-written and the main characters are given time to develop, which I do like. Their personalities fit their actions well, and that's part of the charm of a good book to read. This one was easy enough to read in one sitting, and became more intriguing as the story went on. There were plenty of suspects, a ton of red herrings; but I will say that I knew who the killer was the minute they stepped onto the page; and only because I read so many mysteries did I figure it out early. The clues are there, but you have to look for them.
In the end, when all was revealed and the killer discovered, everything came together nicely. We do learn a little bit about what may happen in the next book, and that's a good thing. The book was indeed satisfying to read, and I look forward to the next in the series. Recommended.
More on Tara Lush's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/tara-lush/
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