Maggy Thorsen Mystery #7

Severn House publication, December 2011
Hardcover: ISBN 978-0727880796
Also available as E-book

There’s a chill in the Wisconsin air and it’s a shot in the arm–or “triple-shot,” in this case–to Uncommon Grounds, the Brookhills coffeehouse owned by Maggy Thorsen and real estate maven Sarah Kingston. Not only is their relocation to the town’s historic train station a success, the store’s autumn drink, a “Triple Shot, Fully-leaded Espresso,” is taking off, fueled by hefty doses of caffeine and sugar.

All seems well, if a little jittery, in Brookhills as faded television personality Ward Chitown arrives in search of a long-hidden Mafia stash, money from a raid Chitown’s FBI father commanded some thirty years ago in which three agents died.

A tragedy, but it’s agents from another profession, real estate, who are facing modern-day danger in Brookhills. Two of Sarah’s fellow brokers have been killed–shot and left to die in the properties they were showing.

Then a stench begins to percolate through the coffeehouse, forcing the partners to set aside everything else to investigate. In the process, they find that corpses–like other bad things–do indeed come in threes.

What They’re Saying

Publishers Weekly:  In Balzo’s stimulating seventh Maggie Thorsen mystery (after A Cup of Jo), over-the-hill TV star Ward Chitown plans to do a show about a shootout in Brookhills, Wis., in 1974 between the FBI and the Mafia that left six dead and a fortune missing. This amusing, well-written entry should win Balzo more fans.

Booklist::  Multiple bodies notwithstanding, this is appealing, lighthearted fare.

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