Reviews by Saph: #BookReview ~ A Bean to Die For (A Coffee Lover's Mystery) by Tara Lush #CozyMystery #TaraLush #ABeanToDieFor

Friday, December 13, 2024

#BookReview ~ A Bean to Die For (A Coffee Lover's Mystery) by Tara Lush #CozyMystery #TaraLush #ABeanToDieFor

A Bean to Die For (A Coffee Lover's Mystery) by Tara Lush

Cozy Mystery

4th in Series

Setting - Florida

Publisher: ‎ Crooked Lane Books (January 9, 2024)

Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

ISBN-10: ‎ 163910545X

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1639105458

Digital ASIN: ‎ B0C1YBSBXZ

About A Bean to Die For:

Perfect for fans of Cleo Coyle and Lucy Burdette, reporter-turned-barista Lana Lewis is back on the case when a body is dug up in the community garden.

Lana Lewis is brewing up new concoctions at Perkatory, a popular café in Devil’s Beach, when she decides she wants to try her hand at growing her own coffee. She secures a gardening plot in the community garden, thanks to her father and the garden’s owner, Darla. Darla’s list of rules is long, but that doesn’t stop someone from leaving Jack Daggett’s body amongst the gardening plots.

Jack, an environmental activist, had been banned from the garden previously, because of his many fights with Darla about organic produce. Lana promises her boyfriend, police chief Noah, that she’s going to stay out of this case, having been too involved in previous cases. But when she learns that Jack died from an accidental overdose, and Darla is the top suspect because of her shady past, Lana can't help but poke around in an attempt to clear Darla's name.

As Lana dives deeper into the case, she learns that Jack had more enemies than she realized. When Darla turns up dead, Lana has to turn up the heat on her investigation. With Lana on the case, it won’t be long before someone spills the beans to crack this case wide open. But will she able to find the killer before they strike again?

My Review:

We are back in Devil's Beach, Florida with A Bean to Die For, book four in the Coffee Lover's Mystery series!

A Bean to Die For is a wonderful fourth book in this series. Lana is moving into harvesting her own Florida-grown coffee beans, and she knows the perfect place. The community garden is a strictly enforced farmer's market type growing area. Lana manages to secure a plot with the help of her father and the garden president, Darla. Upon arrival to view and assess her plot, the body of Jack Daggett, local citizen and fight instigator, is found dead among the previous tenant's tomato plants. Darla is the number one suspect due to a past that still haunts her. Lana gets involved to help keep Darla from going to prison. What Lana finds is a laundry list of people with grievances against Jack.

I really enjoyed A Bean to Die For. The set-up of the mystery was carefully planned out, the number of suspects kept me guessing, and the sleuthing done in a way I would expect a former journalist to be able execute. Lana is a wonderful heroine, her father quirky, and the rest of characters well-developed. I loved the setting and the way the author described everything from the inside of the coffeeshop to the beach. Being able to envision the story as I read along is paramount to my total enjoyment and A Bean to Die For by Tara Lush knocked it out of the park.

I was provided a copy of this book.