Friday, October 11, 2019

Lattes and Lies

Not a regular member of Memaw's book club, Kirby Jackson is excited to attend this evening's meeting. In Lattes and Lies by Christine Zane Thomas, Kirby's favorite author Pam Isley is the guest of honor. 

It turns out Pam had purchased a condo on Gaiman Island, Florida, and decides to attend the book club meeting to introduce her latest book in the series. Although this new book is part of the series, it is more of a thriller rather than a cozy. And ten years has passed from the last book to the newest one, The Dog Woofed Premeditation. 

The book club meeting is held at the Elks Club and it is a full house. Kirby is nervous about attending because he is sure he will see Avett. He had been on one date with Barb's niece Avett before he had been accused of murdering his friend Ryan. Now cleared of the murder, Kirby isn't sure if he should try to resume the relationship.

Before long the guest of honor appears and it turns out she knows Avett's Aunt Barb from her college days, although Barb doesn't seem that enthused to see Pam again. After the meeting, Kirby and Avett decide to leave and found something besides the pot luck dinner to eat.  They head back to Kirby's coffee shop/comic book store Kapow Koffee to pick up Gambit, Kirby's dachshund, then to dinner.

After dinner Kirby drives Avett back to her aunt's house and she offers to lend his the newest Pam Isley's latest book. While Kirby waits outside, Avett suddenly rushes out to tell him her aunt is dead. There's no sign of trauma, no blood on the body and Barb had a DNR order, so they cannot administer CPR. 

Twitchy from his last encounter with the police, Kirby is leery about calling them, but they arrive and clearly decide Barb, who had bouts with cancer, died from natural causes. Unfortunately after the police leave with the body, Avett discovers vomit in the toilet and thinks maybe her aunt died from food poisoning.  

As Kirby and Avett investigate they discover Barb was very secretive. Hardly anyone new she had had cancer, no one know she had a boyfriend and to top it off, no one knew she was the inspiration for Pam Isley's famous novels. 

Now it's up to Kirby and Avett to figure out who killed Aunt Barb and why. A clever mystery with avid fans trying to solve the crime. 


Disclosure: I received this book from the author.
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