LIVE AND LET GRIND
by Tara Lush
A Florida coffee shop manager investigates the murder of her neighbor.
Things are going pretty well between Lana Lewis and her boyfriend. When she’s not supervising the baristas at Perkatory, where residents of Devil’s Beach go for a quick caffeine fix, she and Police Chief Noah Garcia spend many pleasant evenings together, sharing tasty meals and watching fabulous Gulf Coast sunsets. Lana even has hopes that Noah will bring her to Tampa to meet the rest of his Cuban relatives. So naturally something has to mess up all this boring comity. In this case, it’s the murder of obnoxious Gus Bailey, Lana’s next-door neighbor. In addition to alienating his young wife, Honey, who’s out to make a name for herself roller-skating on Instagram, by having an affair with a local librarian, Gus pisses off all the neighbors by mowing and blowing early Saturday mornings. The day after Lana’s best friend, Erica Penmark, gives him a piece of her mind, he turns up dead, killed in a leaf-blower explosion. His demise naturally sets Lana and Noah at odds. She wants him to rule Erica out as his prime suspect; he wants her to stop trying to prove her bestie’s innocence. After the standard behind-the-scenes sleuthing, sly confrontations with witnesses, and requisite acts of mayhem, Lana succeeds in doing just that.
Romance spices up an otherwise tepid whodunit.