Cold Brew Corpse: A Coffee Lover’s Mystery
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Florida
Crooked Lane Books (December 7, 2021)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages

Synopsis

Espresso bar owner Lana Lewis returns in Tara Lush’s second Coffee Lover’s mystery, a stimulating read that fans of Cleo Coyle and Laura Childs will savor to the last drop.

 

It’s a steamy September, and business is brisk at Perkatory, the hottest coffee shop in Devil’s Beach, FL. Much of the clientele pours in from Dante’s Inferno, the hot yoga studio next door. But the bright, sunny Gulf Coast days turn decidedly dark-roast when the body of the studio’s owner turns up in a nearby swamp.

Between running Perkatory and training Stanley, her golden Shih Tzu puppy, reporter-turned-barista Lana Lewis is too busy to go sleuthing. But when the editor of the local paper asks her to write about the murder, Lana’s dreams of getting back into journalism start to percolate.

Lana discovers that the yogi has a nefarious past and her share of mug shots, so grinding her way through the suspect list is a large task. She learns that the victim was fatally beaned by an SUV before she was dumped in the swamp. But was the killer one of her students? An envious yoga teacher? Or a local photographer who seems to know too much?

But no one tells Lana Lewis what to do. Hunting the caf-fiend who killed the yogi puts Lana and Chief Noah’s relationship–and Lana’s life–in very hot coffee.

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Guest Post

Today we welcome Tara to StoreyBook Reviews and her insights into writing her dad into her book. I love her outlook on why she included a father figure versus a mother figure.

Writing My Dad into A Book

By Tara Lush

In reading the reviews of my debut cozy mystery Grounds for Murder, one character stands out as most readers’ favorite: Peter Lewis, the father of Lana Lewis, the book’s heroine-sleuth. Peter is in his late sixties, a widower, and the biggest gossip on Devil’s Beach, the fictional Florida island where my series is located.

Perhaps it’s his enthusiasm for life, or maybe it’s his love for his daughter—readers seem to adore him. Some have written me and asked for a book focused on him, while others want him to team up with his daughter to solve more murders in upcoming installments of the Coffee Lover’s Mystery series.

Some comments on Goodreads:

“I love her dad – he has a nice hippie vibe.”

“Lana’s dad is a laid back hippie kind of dude that does seem fazed my much but supports his daughter 100%.”

“A sweet and funny man, a hippie that loves his daughter immensely and always tries to make the best of a bad situation.⁠”

Here’s a secret: that character was based on my own father! My dad is from California, and quite quirky in a very 1960s-counterculture kind of way.

I didn’t set out to write him into a book. In 2019, when I started plotting the first in the Coffee Lover’s Mystery Series, I initially wrote the character as Lana’s mother. Of the cozies I’d read with a parent sidekick, most involved moms.

Then something awful happened while I was working on the first few chapters of the book: doctors found something suspicious on one of my dad’s medical tests.

Suddenly everything seemed to come into sharp focus. One doctor said it was likely my father had cancer.  He was scheduled for tests, and the results seemed to take forever.

Meanwhile, I was thousands of miles away in Florida. I kept on writing and decided to make a casting change in my sidekick character. I named the parent character after my dad and drew from some of my father’s quirkiest traits while writing.

It brought me so much joy and laughter as I wrote, thinking about my dad and trying to capture him on the page.

Happily, he didn’t have cancer. He was given the all-clear at the end of 2019, and he’s doing incredibly well.

I recently went to visit for his 75^th birthday, and for a solid week, we laughed, took walks, and chatted about random things. Like space (he reads a lot about other planets and aliens). Or terrible reality TV (he’s an avid 90 Day Fiance viewer). Or cat food (he loves his two cats and has become something of an expert on feline food).

He’s considered moving to be close to me in Florida, and my favorite quote of his came when we were discussing such a move.

“If I lived in Florida, I’d never have to wear pants again!”

Now, I’ll definitely be using that quote in my next mystery.

Here’s a short excerpt of Peter Lewis in COLD BREW CORPSE:

The door to the café opened and in walked Dad.

“Munchkin!” He strode toward me.

I could tell by the gleam in his eye he was harboring a juicy piece of gossip. I moved around the counter to greet him, and he gave me a half hug. Dad was tall, at least a foot taller than me, and his limbs were long and athletic, even for his age.

“What’s new?”

“Over there.” He motioned with his head to an empty table near the window. He had a serious look on his face, as if he were about to reveal a dark, explosive secret that would take down a global leader. We sat facing each other.

“Why the secrecy?” I folded my hands in front of me, trying not to laugh.

“I went to yoga this morning at The Wolfman’s.” His tone was pure drama.

“Oh yeah?”

“We shared a kombucha afterward and got to talking.”

My nose scrunched involuntarily. Dad loved that fermented tea, but I thought it tasted like feet dipped in vinegar. “And?”

He leaned in and lowered his voice so much that I couldn’t hear him at first.

“Dad, you can speak up. There are only three tables in here, and they’re at least fifteen feet away. I think your state secret’s safe if you talk in a normal tone.”

“Okay, listen. Raina’s had a stalker for some time now. Well, people described him as a stalker. He was a student. Followed Raina around like a puppy. Word on the street is the guy was a real creeper while they were all on the retreat in Costa Rica.”

“How does The Wolfman know this?” I narrowed my eyes. Maybe Dad’s gossip connections weren’t all that great. After all, we were talking about a sixty-five-year-old man who looked like a skinny Jerry Garcia and wore rainbow sweatbands.

“Wolfie knows everyone in the yoga community here on the beach.” Dad sniffed.

About the Author

Tara Lush is a Florida-based author and journalist. She’s an RWA Rita finalist, an Amtrak writing fellow, and the winner of the George C. Polk award for environmental journalism.

She was a reporter with The Associated Press in Florida, covering crime, alligators, natural disasters, and politics. She also writes contemporary romance set in tropical locations under the name Tamara Lush.

Tara is a fan of vintage pulp fiction book covers, Sinatra-era jazz, 1980s fashion, tropical chill, kombucha, gin, tonic, seashells, iPhones, Art Deco, telenovelas, street art, coconut anything, strong coffee, and newspapers. She lives on the Gulf Coast with her husband and two dogs.

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