Double Shot Death

by Emmeline Duncan

Overview

With its entrepreneurial, 20-something protagonist, focus on a hipster-run food truck pod in Portland, Oregon, and real-world issues involving homelessness and gentrification, this second Ground Rules Mystery is a modern, fresh-voiced, and witty cozy featuring a sleuth who can make a perfect cup of coffee!

Fresh Brewed Murder is a fresh, updated cozy mystery that offers strong appeal to Millennial and Gen Z readers.

Sage Caplin is taking her Portland coffee cart on the road to a sustainable music festival, but murder is an unwanted special guest…

At Campathon, an annual eco-friendly festival held on a farm outside of Portland, fans celebrate the Pacific Northwest’s music scene in quintessential PDX style—with gourmet food carts, reusable utensils…and lots of coffee. How else to get through three days of nonstop entertainment? Sage has scored a coveted place for her Ground Rules coffee cart thanks to her new-ish boyfriend, Bax, who’s friendly with Maya, one of the musicians performing.

The festivities begin with a stream of customers, friends, and acquaintances stopping by for Ground Rules’ world-class blends, expertly brewed by Sage and her newest barista. But there are tensions between Maya and her former bandmates, who are on the cusp of making it big, and with Ian, the band’s manager. When Sage stumbles upon Ian’s dead body in the nearby woods—his hand still clutching one of her coffee mugs—it’s clear that someone’s grudge boiled over into murder. Can Sage work out who’s responsible before another innocent life fades out, and the curtain falls on Campathon, and maybe her own future, for good?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496733412
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Series:	A Ground Rules Mystery , #2
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	213,696
Product dimensions:	5.47(w) x 8.23(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Emmeline Duncan is the Portland, Oregon-based author of the Ground Rules Mystery Series, as well as YA novels written under the name Kelly Garrett. She is a 2020 Oregon Literary Fellow, a board member of the Northwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and co-organizer of the Friends of Mystery's Bloody Thursday lecture series. She's also a member of Sisters-In-Crime, Willamette Writers, and SCBWI. Visit her online at EmmelineDuncan.com, on Instagram and Facebook as @writeremmelineduncan, and on twitter as @duncanemmeline.

Editorial Reviews

03/07/2022

Duncan’s assured sequel to 2021’s Fresh Brewed Murder takes Sage Caplin, the co-owner of Ground Rules (“a coffee company consisting of a roastery, two food carts, and employees”), to the annual Campathon Music Festival, held at a farm outside Portland, Ore. Joining Sage for the weekend-long event is Lukas “Bax” Baxter, her video game developer boyfriend, who runs into Maya Olivera, a singer with whom Bax has worked developing music for some of his games. Maya’s former band, the Changelings, is also there and playing music written or co-written by Maya and Nate Green, the Changelings’ front man, which gives Maya reason to confront Nate’s manager, Ian Rabe, over royalties she hasn’t been paid. One of Campathon’s organizers and Ian’s assistant also have reasons to have it in for Ian. When Sage stumbles across Ian’s dead body, clutching a coffee mug of hers, she once again turns sleuth. Solid prose, a well-crafted plot, and plenty of coffee lore draw the reader in. A socially liberal vibe—Bax happily mixes with his ex-wife, their young son, and her husband—sets this cozy apart. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2022-01-26
What seems like a great opportunity turns into an Oregon barista’s nightmare.

Big news: Sage Caplin and Harley Yamazaki, partners in Ground Rules coffee company, are about to expand the two carts they own to a store. Plus, a last-minute cancellation has given Sage the coffee provider spot at the Campathon Music Festival on a farm outside Portland. Sage and her boyfriend, Bax, a video game designer, plan to make this a working vacation. They’re barely parked when drama erupts between some of the other participants. As the first coffee drinkers arrive, it’s clear that there are bad feelings between singer Maya Oliveira, who does songs for Bax’s videos, and Nate Green, the frontman for the Changelings, a band represented by Ian Rabe. Maya wrote many of the songs on the Changelings album but so far has received neither money not credit. When Sage stumbles upon Ian’s body, it brings back bad memories of a murder case in which she was a suspect. Sage tells Detective Adams about her unfortunate find and describes the people she saw in the vicinity, annoying her lawyer brother, who’s also attending the festival, for saying anything without consulting him. As the festival goes on, Sage picks up a great deal of gossip while serving coffee and notices a few things that strike her as odd. But it takes a while until the penny drops and she realizes who killed Ian.

A clever sleuth, music trivia, and plenty of West Coast vibes add up to an enjoyable read.

Kirkus Reviews