Grounds for Murder by Sandra Balzo

This is the sequel to “Uncommon Grounds” which was published a few years ago to much critical acclaim. This book was ok, but I think suffers from a sophomore slump.

Maggy Thorsen, is the divorced owner of the coffeehouse “Uncommon Grounds.” It’s time for the annual “Java Ho” a coffee trade show and Maggy gets roped in to running the barista competition. The book opens with Maggy discovering a dead body of the conference coordinator and then flashes back for the next 100 pages to catch the reader up on how Maggy got there.

I remember liking Uncommon Grounds, and I don’t feel this lives up to that book’s promise. I didn’t get a good sense of Maggy, even with the subplot of her thwarted romance with the hunky local sherriff and there were a couple of secondary characters (Maggy’s friends and co-workers) who I kept confusing because they weren’t distinct enough as characters. But it was only 217 pages and an ok enough mystery. The ending did feel a little forced.