Book 27, 2018

Malicious Mocha Murder by J R Pearson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Wednesday night, I completed the ebook Malicious Mocha Murder, by JR Pearson. It's the first story in the "Sophia Rivera" paranormal cozy series.

Sophia is a young woman who spends her days working at Hit Cafe (which is a coffee shop/bakery) and her nights playing an online fantasy game. She has a cat and an apartment, and she's normal as can be...except for her ability to see ghosts. Sophia's grandmother, Dottie, often pops in for a visit, bringing the ghost of Sophia's pet ferret, Rufus, along with her.

When Sophia is contacted by the spirit of a young woman who was murdered fifty years ago, her life becomes more complicated. Suddenly, it's up to Sophia to help Lucy cross over into Tranquility, but to do that, she needs to find one of Lucy's family members. The only way Sophia can see to do that is to enlist the aid of Russell Rizzo, the smokin' hot guy who frequents Hit Cafe and who works to prevent cyber-crime. Sophia has the hots for Russ, but she can't abide his twin brother, Reese...or can she?

:D

This was a cute cozy with a few frightening scenes thrown in. SPaG was mostly good, with only a few errors. Characterizations were done well, including the cat and the ferret! Language got colorful at times, but nothing you wouldn't expect someone Sophia's age to use. If I have any complaints, it's that the title was misleading. I thought, based on where Sophia works, that someone would be murdered in conjunction with Hit Cafe, but instead, the mystery revolved around Lucy's circumstances. That's fine, because I often lament that cozy mysteries needn't always involve a murder, nor even a current murder. However, the title had nothing at all to do with the decades-old death of Lucy.

Favorite line: "Now that you're up, I'm sure you'll want to watch me pee and brush my teeth while silently planning my death until I feed you, huh?"

Fun story, and will certainly read more in the series. Four stars:

****