Murder a la Mocha

by Sandra Balzo

Overview

Coffee, a canine and a corpse: a bad feeling leads to an even worse discovery when Maggy tries to return a Chihuahua to its owners in the new coffeehouse mystery.

Maggy Thorsen’s evening with her fiancé Sheriff Jake Pavlik and his parents in Chicago takes a dramatic turn when Jake’s mother falls ill, then a Chihuahua jumps in front of Maggy’s car on her drive back to Uncommon Grounds, her Wisconsin coffeehouse. Attempting to return Mocha to her owners, George and Marian Satterwite, the following day, Maggy comes face-to-face with Arial, their dog-sitter and her business partner Sarah’s niece. But something doesn’t feel right . . .

Returning to the property, Maggy and Marian make a shocking discovery. And where are George and Arial? With Jake still in Chicago and Sarah desperate to find her niece, Maggy is soon drawn into another deadly puzzle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727829832
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	07/31/2019
Series:	Maggy Thorsen Series , #11
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sandra Balzo built an impressive career as a public relations consultant before authoring the successful ‘Maggy Thorsen’ coffeehouse mysteries, the first of which, Uncommon Grounds, was published to stellar reviews and nominated for an Anthony and Macavity Award. Murder a la Mocha is the eleventh in the series. She is also the author of the ‘Main Street Murders’ series.

Editorial Reviews

"Plot twists, snippets of coffeehouse culture, and plenty of dogs and dog behaviour are integrated nicely with the mystery. This character-rich series will appeal to readers who enjoy Laurien Berenson's Melanie Travis cozies, also featuring a host of canines"

Booklist

10/22/2018
In Balzo’s solid 11th mystery featuring Maggy Thorsen, owner of the Uncommon Grounds coffee shop in Brookhills, Wis. (after 2017’s The Importance of Being Urnest), Maggy is driving home from Chicago one evening when she spots a small animal darting across the road. She stops the car, grabs a flashlight, and sets out to find what she fears is a lost puppy. What she discovers is a frightened, flea-ridden chihuahua, whose tag identifies it as Mocha. Maggy texts the number on the tag and reaches the dog sitter, Arial (named after the font, not for Disney mermaid Ariel), who’s the niece of Maggy’s business partner, Sarah Kingston. On arrival at the home of “Mocha’s parents,” she’s greeted by a nervous and evasive Arial. When Maggy and Sarah later visit the house to check on Arial, there’s a dead man lying on the floor and Arial is gone. Fearful that Arial has become a murder suspect, Maggy and Sarah set out to locate Arial and prove her innocence. Balzo relies too much on loquacious Maggy’s digressions to pad out the plot, but her stream-of-consciousness rambles on such topics as fashion faux pas, snippy chihuahuas, and infrasound are sure to please series fans. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Plot twists, snippets of coffeehouse culture, and plenty of dogs and dog behaviour are integrated nicely with the mystery. This character-rich series will appeal to readers who enjoy Laurien Berenson's Melanie Travis cozies, also featuring a host of canines"

Booklist

2018-11-14

A minuscule pooch drags coffee-shop owner Maggy Thorsen (The Importance of Being Urnest, 2017, etc.) into yet another round of homicide.

Her introductory dinner with fiance Jake Pavlik's parents cut short by the sudden illness of his mom, Maggy decides to drive Jake's car back from Chicago to Brookhills, Wisconsin, by herself while he stands vigil at the hospital. But on the road home, she sees a Chihuahua scamper across the road and picks up the tiny dog before it gets hit by a car. Her Old English sheepdog, Frank, is less than thrilled by the unexpected visitor, so the next day Maggy returns Mocha to the address on her dog tag, the home of her owners, George and Marian Satterwite. But instead of George and Marian, Maggy finds her own dogsitter, Arial Kingston, waiting for the wayward mutt. Some suspicious-sounding firecrackers in the background and a visit from the Satterwites' cranky neighbor, Ryan Lyle, make Maggy worry about Arial. So the next day, she and her partner, Sarah Kingston, who just happens to be Arial's aunt, go back to the Satterwites' to check on the girl and find no sign of Arial or Mocha. Instead, they run into Marian Satterwite, just back from Australia. And for once, it isn't corpse-magnet Maggy who stumbles across a dead body. It's Marian. The unidentified dead guy is the first in a cavalcade of players—some deceased, some missing, some canine—none of whom are really any of Maggy's business but who occupy her time anyway while her business sputters along on its own.

Balzo, who usually keeps her plots under fairly strict control, unleashes a whopper that quickly devolves from mystery to shaggy dog story.

Kirkus Reviews