A blast from the past gets Nashville PI and coffeehouse manager Juliet Langley in hot water in this explosive mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Death Before Decaf.

As a newly minted private eye, Juliet Langley has sworn to leave homicide to the authorities, limiting the scope of her investigations to cheating spouses and dirty business partners . . . like her ex-fiancé, Scott O’Malley. When Scott shows up unannounced at her coffeehouse, Java Jive, Juliet’s first instinct is to punch him in the nose. Her second is to turn down his desperate plea for help with a case that’s way too dangerous for her liking. But when Scott drops dead before her eyes, Juliet isn’t going to wait around for someone else to clear her name.

It’s only a matter of time before her tumultuous past with her ex-fiancé comes out, so Juliet teams up with her ex-boyfriend, police detective Ryder Hamilton, to figure out who poisoned Scott. They soon confirm that Scott was involved in an illegal scheme that’s definitely grounds for concern.

Just as romance is finally beginning to percolate for Juliet and her best friend, Pete Bennett, she has no choice but to head back to her hometown to seek out the truth. And she’ll need help from the locals to find the real killer—otherwise her happily ever after could easily end up including an actual ball and chain.

So… in my last review I mentioned my dislike of drug-related cozy mysteries and how they don’t work as well.  Apparently I hadn’t paid attention because the next book in the series followed the same format.  However, it’s premise was completely different from the previous book and it was about pharmaceutical representatives.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book and I felt it was definitely moving the series back towards the point where Juliet is humorous and likable again.  Perhaps my apprehension for the last book was just based on how the story worked together and less on the theme.

Or maybe it’s because Juliet is a suspect in this book.  The one thing I’ve noticed in these books is that the character of Juliet is far more interesting when she’s invested in the case.  The previous book was about an employee’s murdered fiancee and it just wasn’t a priority for Juliet.  However, when it’s Pete or Juliet who are suspected of murder, Juliet goes to the extremes to prove their innocence.

I was pleased to finally learn more about Juliet’s ex-fiance and the events that led to her moving back to Nashville.  It was interesting to see how the character was still processing her hurt and anger.  One thing that did surprise me was the time period of these books.  In this book, it’s been a year since the beginning of Death Before Decaf and I honestly thought more time had passed in the series.

I’m not one for spoiling books, but I’ll admit that I’m not sure there will be another book in the series.  Perhaps it’s just how I perceived the ending, but I’m hopeful there will be more books to involve Juliet and her shenanigans.

This is definitely a book that I would recommend and if you happen to check it out, I hope you’ll let me know what you thought!

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