Murder à la Mocha

In Balzo’s solid 11th mystery featuring Maggy Thorsen, owner of the Uncommon Grounds coffee shop in Brookhills, Wis. (after 2017’s The Importance of Being Urnest), Maggy is driving home from Chicago one evening when she spots a small animal darting across the road. She stops the car, grabs a flashlight, and sets out to find what she fears is a lost puppy. What she discovers is a frightened, flea-ridden chihuahua, whose tag identifies it as Mocha. Maggy texts the number on the tag and reaches the dog sitter, Arial (named after the font, not for Disney mermaid Ariel), who’s the niece of Maggy’s business partner, Sarah Kingston. On arrival at the home of “Mocha’s parents,” she’s greeted by a nervous and evasive Arial. When Maggy and Sarah later visit the house to check on Arial, there’s a dead man lying on the floor and Arial is gone. Fearful that Arial has become a murder suspect, Maggy and Sarah set out to locate Arial and prove her innocence. Balzo relies too much on loquacious Maggy’s digressions to pad out the plot, but her stream-of-consciousness rambles on such topics as fashion faux pas, snippy chihuahuas, and infrasound are sure to please series fans. [em]Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Jan.) [/em]