Murder a la Mocha

September 5, 2016
Someone kills dental surgeon William Swope by throwing him out his 10th-floor office window in Balzo’s entertaining ninth mystery featuring Brookhills, Wis., coffee shop owner Maggy Thorsen (after 2013’s Murder on the Orient Espresso). Maggy has more than one personal link to the victim. Swope shared his dental practice with Ted Thorsen, Maggy’s ex-husband; Maggy recently consulted Swope’s wife, Lynne, a financial planner, about her inheritance; and Maggy’s son, Eric, got a lift from school from Swope’s daughter the day of the murder. Suspects include a woman who has been picketing the dentists’ office for their being in cahoots with a government plot, and an irate dentist from Louisville, Ky., who blames Swope for illegal business practices and drug use. Maggy can’t keep out of the case, even if it costs her relationship with the investigating sheriff, Jake Pavlik, her boyfriend. Maggy makes an appealing amateur sleuth, though the story would have benefited from more action and fewer discussions and less analysis. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

October 1, 2016
Against the wishes of her boyfriend, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, Maggy Thorsen, part owner of Uncommon Grounds, a coffee shop in Brookhills, Wisconsin, turns sleuth after her ex-husband Ted's former dental-office partner, William Swopes, is found dead. Was his fall from the tenth story of his office building suicide or murder? Suspects include Ted himself as well as a seemingly unbalanced woman who followed Swopes from Kentucky; Ted's daughter, Ginny; and his wife, Lynne, who just filed for divorce due to Ted's many infidelities. Even though Maggy has only known the Swopes family for a short time, she agrees to help Lynne and Ginny, after they emerge as the chief suspects. The self-deprecating Maggy makes an endearing cozy protagonist, and the coffee-shop frame story is brimming with interesting details. There are numerous mystery series starring women who own small businesses and who have some kind of personal connection to law enforcement. Suggest Maggy's adventures to fans of Chris Cavender's Pizza mysteries, Elizabeth J. Duncan's Penny Brannigan series, and Laura Child's Tea Shop mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2018
Maggy Thorsen, owner of the coffeehouse Uncommon Grounds in Brookhills, Wisconsin, rescues a bedraggled chihuahua on a rainy night, much to the disgust of her Old English sheepdog, Frank. When Maggy contacts George Satterwite, the owner of the chihuahua, whose name is Mocha, she learns that Arial Kingston?the niece of Maggie's business partner, Sarah?is the Satterwites' dogsitter, and when Maggie drops the dog off the next morning, she sees what she believes to be blood on Arial's cheek. Concerned when Sarah can't reach Arial, Maggy and Sarah go to the Satterwites' house, find a dead body in the theater room, and discover that Arial and Mocha have disappeared. With Arial a murder suspect on the run, Mocha reappears at Maggy's house. Plot twists, snippets of coffeehouse culture, and plenty of dogs and dog behavior 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)