The first three titles in the Maggy Thorsen Coffeehouse Mystery Series UNCOMMON GROUNDS In her delightful debut, Balzo puts a 21st-century spin on the traditional cozy, replacing tea with coffee as the comfort beverage of choice. Maggy Thorsen, a divorcée whose husband left her for his 24-year-old dental hygienist, and two women friends are eager to open a coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, in the small Wisconsin town of Brookhills, whose inhabitants include such recognizable types as the local gossip and tennis moms. The challenge becomes even greater when Maggy discovers the body of one of her partners, Patricia Harper, on the floor of their coffee shop. Determined to find out who killed Patricia and why, Maggy delves into the mystery with a sense of humor that would make Miss Marple smile. In her search for the truth, she works with, and sometimes against, the new and unpredictable county sheriff, Jake Pavlik—and uncovers at considerable personal risk the secrets of some of the town's most prominent citizens. GROUNDS FOR MURDER Exactly how hot is the competition at the annual coffee trade industry conference in Milwaukee? Scalding What's not hot? Finding Marvin LaRoche, owner of the HotWired coffeehouse chain store stone-cold dead under a banquet table in the middle of the convention. And everybody knows that Maggy was no great fan of Mr. LaRoche, nor of his overly competitive business practices - so it's up to Maggy's own amateur sleuthing skills to get herself out of the hotseat! BEAN THERE, DONE THAT Here's a tip: if your ex-husband's mistress-cum-missus asks for your help in proving that he cheated on her while he was married to you, just say no. And you most certainly should not invite this new missus, Mrs. Rachel Thorsen, in for a cup of coffee. But big-hearted Maggy can't seem to help her own hospitality. Unfortunately, most unfortunately, this mistress-cum-missus disappears shortly after her coffeehouse confab with Maggy and is later found murdered...making Maggy's ex, Ted, the chief suspect. Despite the tempting satisfaction of seeing her ex go down, Maggy knows Ted is innocent. Cheater? Yes. Murderer? Definitely not. So Maggy reluctantly agrees to help him. Now it's up to Maggy to discover the truth...even if it upsets her on-again, off-again relationship with the handsome Sheriff Jake Pavlik...

It’s November and Maggy Thorsen, co-owner of the Wisconsin gourmet coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, is in South Florida at an annual crime-writers’ conference with her beau, local sheriff Jake Pavlik, who is due to speak as a ‘forensics expert’. Maggy’s pledge to behave solely as a tourist becomes trickier than she anticipated when the conference’s opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express. As Maggy and Jake reluctantly set off on the night train to the Everglades to solve the ‘crime’, it’s clear that, as in the original novel, nothing is quite what it seems. And amidst rumours of careers taken, manuscripts stolen and vows broken, it seems that in the Everglades – as in life – the predator all too often becomes the prey.

The first three titles in the Maggy Thorsen Coffeehouse Mystery Series UNCOMMON GROUNDS In her delightful debut, Balzo puts a 21st-century spin on the traditional cozy, replacing tea with coffee as the comfort beverage of choice. Maggy Thorsen, a divorcée whose husband left her for his 24-year-old dental hygienist, and two women friends are eager to open a coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, in the small Wisconsin town of Brookhills, whose inhabitants include such recognizable types as the local gossip and tennis moms. The challenge becomes even greater when Maggy discovers the body of one of her partners, Patricia Harper, on the floor of their coffee shop. Determined to find out who killed Patricia and why, Maggy delves into the mystery with a sense of humor that would make Miss Marple smile. In her search for the truth, she works with, and sometimes against, the new and unpredictable county sheriff, Jake Pavlik—and uncovers at considerable personal risk the secrets of some of the town's most prominent citizens. GROUNDS FOR MURDER Exactly how hot is the competition at the annual coffee trade industry conference in Milwaukee? Scalding What's not hot? Finding Marvin LaRoche, owner of the HotWired coffeehouse chain store stone-cold dead under a banquet table in the middle of the convention. And everybody knows that Maggy was no great fan of Mr. LaRoche, nor of his overly competitive business practices - so it's up to Maggy's own amateur sleuthing skills to get herself out of the hotseat! BEAN THERE, DONE THAT Here's a tip: if your ex-husband's mistress-cum-missus asks for your help in proving that he cheated on her while he was married to you, just say no. And you most certainly should not invite this new missus, Mrs. Rachel Thorsen, in for a cup of coffee. But big-hearted Maggy can't seem to help her own hospitality. Unfortunately, most unfortunately, this mistress-cum-missus disappears shortly after her coffeehouse confab with Maggy and is later found murdered...making Maggy's ex, Ted, the chief suspect. Despite the tempting satisfaction of seeing her ex go down, Maggy knows Ted is innocent. Cheater? Yes. Murderer? Definitely not. So Maggy reluctantly agrees to help him. Now it's up to Maggy to discover the truth...even if it upsets her on-again, off-again relationship with the handsome Sheriff Jake Pavlik...

In her delightful debut, Balzo puts a 21st-century spin on the traditional cozy, replacing tea with coffee as the comfort beverage of choice. Maggy Thorsen, a divorcée whose husband left her for his 24-year-old dental hygienist, and two women friends are eager to open a coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, in the small Wisconsin town of Brookhills, whose inhabitants include such recognizable types as the local gossip and tennis moms. In a world where Starbuck's and other chains are ubiquitous, Maggy and her friends have their work cut out for them. The challenge becomes even greater when Maggy discovers the body of one of her partners, Patricia Harper, on the floor of their coffee shop. Determined to find out who killed Patricia and why, Maggy delves into the mystery with a sense of humor that would make Miss Marple smile. In her search for the truth, she works with, and sometimes against, the new and unpredictable county sheriff, Jake Pavlik—and uncovers at considerable personal risk the secrets of some of the town's most prominent citizens. Readers will want to curl up with this winner with a cappuccino or maybe even a Viennese cinnamon latte. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "...as wonderfully rich and sharply written as anything going. What moves Balzo's book high above other writers is a sharp and often amusing skill that convinces us that this is real life and that it matters." –Chicago Tribune

When the sister of Maggy Thorsen's coffeehouse business partner Sarah is hospitalised on the day of their mother's funeral, Maggy is drawn into uncovering the family's darkest secrets . . . The Kingston family has always been at odds, but Maggy Thorsen hopes that the passing of Edna Mayes Kingston, mother of Sarah Kingston, her Uncommon Grounds coffeehouse partner, might unite them. Alas, few tears are shed over the self-righteous Edna, and the wake is barely over when Edna's body is shuffled off unceremoniously for burial and Sarah's sister Ruth is found unconscious in the family home. Did Ruth suffer accidental carbon monoxide poisoning or something more sinister? And could there have been more to Ruth's haste to bury Edna than meets the eye? Determined to find out, Maggy and Sarah join forces with Sarah's niece, Arial. As questions mount and family tensions percolate, the presence of a mysterious stranger leads the trio into the past to uncover the darkest of family secrets.

Maggy Thorsen, cynic extraordinaire, has a few things to feel optimistic about lately. After her original coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, was destroyed in a freak May blizzard, Maggy and her best friend, Sarah Kingston, have found the perfect spot to relocate – right next to the new commuter train in Milwaukee.After successfully securing the spot, Maggy and Sarah plan to piggyback the city’s celebrations for the train and re-open Uncommon Grounds on the same day. In fact, Maggy’s feeling so positive, she even digs deep in her budget and hires a giant inflatable coffee cup to attract more notice to her grand reopening.All seems to be running right according to plan...until Maggy’s event manager is found dead – and now Maggy must find the killer before the killer finds her!!

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