Whole Latte Murder

The Blurb
Summer in Boggy Creek has arrived, and Gia’s best friend, successful real estate agent Savannah, is getting hitched. Now she’s enlisted Gia’s sleuthing talents in a desperate search for the perfect wedding dress. But when Savannah mysteriously vanishes after showing a mansion to a bigwig client, Gia investigates the house Savannah was trying to sell. The first clue she finds is Savannah’s car in the driveway. Inside the house, they stumble on Savannah’s potential buyer, dead. Someone had apparently closed the deal, with a two-by-four full of nails to the client’s head. Soon afterward, a woman’s body is fished from the lake near the same house. The townsfolk are now sweating bullets over the murders, and the heat comes down on poor Gia to find her missing friend and track down the killer.

The Details
Series: All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery – Book #5
Author: Lena Gregory
Genre/Category: Cozy – Amateur Sleuth/Culinary
Publisher: Lyrical Underground
ISBN: 1516110498
Page Count: 204
Rating:

The Review
Gia’s back in the fifth book in the “All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery “ series, Whole Latte Murder (I’m not sure where the Latte part comes in). This time around, Gia’s best friend Savannah is planning her wedding, and Gia is helping. But when Savannah’s client is killed while viewing a house and Savannah disappears, things get serious.

These books have been enjoyable, and this one is not an exception. However, there are times when characters become bogged down in details that make it difficult to enjoy reading about them, or a plot just doesn’t fit. In the case of this book, there are a few issues I could not get past. For instance, even though Gia spends most of her time at the cafe, it doesn’t matter; the setting could have been anywhere. Unlike the other books in this series, the cafe just isn’t the center of attention, and it should be. Savannah’s wedding, although it is supposed to be part of the overall plot, doesn’t play a part other than a couple of mentions about a location for the reception and dress shopping. The “mob” connection is, in my opinion, a subterfuge that just didn’t work. I liked the idea; I just didn’t feel it fit in with the other books in this series.

The suspects, what there are of them, and the killer were easy to figure out immediately; the author more-or-less gave it away as soon as they were introduced, making it hard to enjoy the who-dun-it portion of it the story. The evidence was insignificant and didn’t play a true role in solving the murder. Gia stayed at the cafe all day waiting for what the police said could be a ransom call. But why would a kidnapper call Savannah’s best friend and not her family, who don’t seem to be out hunting for their missing loved one? Even Savannah’s fiance, a cop, isn’t out tearing up the countryside looking for his future bride. Overall, this story didn’t work on many levels, the wedding, cafe, mob, murder, investigation: none of them seemed to play a significant enough role to make an impact.

I enjoyed Whole Latte Murder for the relationship aspects more than anything. The closeness of Gia and Savannah is terrific, the cafe employees and patrons are fun and entertaining, and hopefully, we will get to enjoy Savannah’s wedding in the next installment. There are moments in this book that invoke real emotion and intrigue, but I would recommend that readers who haven’t read any of the other books in this series do not start with this one.

The Author
Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full-time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.