Coffee & Cream Cafe Mysteries

Grounds for Murder (Coffee & Cream Cafe Mysteries)
by Lena Gregory

About Grounds for Murder

Grounds for Murder (Coffee & Cream Cafe Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Watchogue, Long Island, New York
Gemma Halliday Publishing (November 21, 2023)
Number of Pages 226
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CCLT922F

GUEST POST

Dogs and Cats in Cozy Mysteries

Let me start by saying, I love big dogs. I’ve had at least one, and sometimes as many as four, ever since I was a kid. I love cats too, and have had my share over the years. To me, a pet fills a home with love and joy. Not only do I love pets in my own life, I love them in my cozy mysteries as well. And each pet has its own personality and adds to the story in his own way.

In my Bay Island Psychic series, Cass adopts Beast, a giant Leonberger with the personality of a teddy bear. But he gets into everything! Much like my Golden Retriever, Nala, who once ate half a sweatshirt. In Occult and Battery, Beast swallows an important piece of evidence (though I won’t say what.) Thor, the Bernese Mountain Dog Gia adopts in the All-Day Breakfast Café series, is a real sweetheart, and is based on my Bernese Mountain Dog/ Golden Retriever mix, Koda. And Klondike, the little gray and white kitten Thor rescues, gets into some of the same things my own cats have gotten into over the years.

When I began my Mini-Meadows series, in which Emma lives in a tiny home, she adopted the ginger tabby cat that came with the house. But how could you not add a big dog to the mix to make things more interesting? So, her Granny Rose shows up and announces she’s moving in to the home Gia made from shipping containers and promptly adopts a Great Dane.

In the Coffee & Cream Café series, Dani adopts Patches—a black, white, and orange cat who showed up one day and made herself at home. Each of these pets have their own personalities, quirks, and even an occasional flaw, just like in real life. They add to their stories, are there for their owners when needed, and sometimes even safe lives. To me, pets play an important role in cozies.\

From author Lena Gregory comes a tasty new mystery with a killer twist…

Danika Delaney is thrilled to have taken over her uncle Jimmie’s old fashioned malt shop on eastern Long Island and is working hard to make it her own. In an effort to increase business, Danika invites a mystery writer to the Cookies & Cream Café for a discussion and book signing. Things seem to be going well, until a guest shows up and confronts the author, accusing him of plagiarizing his work. Embarrassed by the incident, Danika goes to the inn where the writer is staying the following morning, hoping to apologize and offer him another chance to return. What she finds instead is his dead body—beside a cup of poisoned coffee! Now it’s up to Danika to find out who wanted to silence the author… before the killer decides to write Danika a not-so-happy ending!

About Lena Gregory

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

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