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Book Review
Reviewed: 15 January 2024

A Bean to Die For

by: Tara Lush

A Coffee Lover's Mystery - Book 4

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starhalf starstar outline (3.5/5)

What could wrong starting a community garden project to grow local coffee beans?
Oh, a murder or two.

We rejoin the Perkatory crew a little while after the last murder where best friend, top barista Erica was a suspect. This time there was not a direct impact to the crew and Lana was not eager to investigate. Or so it seemed. The crew and the main suspect “pushed” Lana into investigating even after she’d refused an interview/article for the paper. There was a short time where it seemed that dad and Erica would be running the investigation without Lana.

As the details about the victim and their death unfolded learned a number of fun facts such as the Tik Tok dancing. There’s an 80 y.o cougar (LOL) and meet-the-parents time.

If you’ve read any of the other books in this series, you’ve seen the passing reference to the missing high school friend. That comes up multiple times in this book also along with lots of references to 7th grade. It truly must have been pivotal given Lana is in her thirties. I can’t remember 7th grade all that well (LOL). I hope with all of the missing friend reference that the next book tackles it.

There’s a lot more of Noah and Lana’s relationship in this story. It matures in a number of ways and you start to see a real partnership between them.

Throughout the mystery was not sure about the motive. Sure the victim antagonized people but nothing that seemed to warrant them being killed. Lots to work with here, no real red herrings replaced with lots of head scratching.

I could have done without the prolonged discussion and details on the bug invasion. It didn’t seem to add anything to story but a not-so-funny-to-me anecdote. It did highlight the authors ability to paint a picture in words.

A good read overall.

Thank you to #NetGalley  for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story. 

Happy Reading!

 

Release Date: 9-January-2024
Cozy Mystery, Audiobook, Food Mystery, Female Sleuth, NetGalley

Plot Summary

Perfect for fans of Cleo Coyle and Lucy Burdette, reporter-turned-barista Lana Lewis is back on the case when a body is found in the community garden.

Lana Lewis is brewing up new concoctions at Perkatory, a popular café in Devil’s Beach, when she decides she wants to try her hand at growing her own coffee. She secures a gardening plot in the community garden, thanks to her father and the garden’s owner, Darla. Darla’s list of rules is long, but that doesn’t stop someone from leaving Jack Daggett’s body amongst the gardening plots.

Jack, an environmental activist, had been banned from the garden previously, because of his many fights with Darla about organic produce. Lana promises her boyfriend, police chief Noah, that she’s going to stay out of this case, having been too involved in previous cases. But when she learns that Jack died from an accidental overdose, and Darla is the top suspect because of her shady past, Lana can't help but poke around in an attempt to clear Darla's name.

As Lana dives deeper into the case, she learns that Jack had more enemies than she realized. When Darla turns up dead, Lana has to turn up the heat on her investigation. With Lana on the case, it won’t be long before someone spills the beans to crack this case wide open. But will she able to find the killer before they strike again?