Running on Empty

 In Sandra Balzo's Running on Empty, the first installment in the Main Street Mystery series, this debut takes you straight to the heart of the matter in the deep south. It all started for AnnaLise Griggs that she received a call about her mother's "mental" problems. So during a weekend stay, she left her cushy job as a police beat reporter in Wisconsin and traveled to Sutherton, North Carolina. Things have changed for AnnaLise ever since she left her hometown--her former boyfriend Chuck is now a police chief and had came out as gay, her best friend Bobby is the mayor.  While she untangled her mother's issues, she became privy to some sordid secrets about Dickens Hart--a rich land develop who's having some monetary problems--and needed someone to ghost write his memoirs for a big cash out amount. And when a Japanese visitor named Ichiro Katou visited them to learn about the United States, he ended up in the river. With two dead bodies and one possible attempt on Dickens's life, and one on her own, it was up to AnnaLise to discover the truth on who killed them and why... when it boiled them to a matter of DNA... and a trunk filled of family secrets, right down to the end.

 This was a pleasant and an easy read to take in one setting. And this is one of Sandra Balzo's earliest mystery novels that spanned two titles. I do enjoy getting to know AnnaLise and her eccentric mother Lorraine "Daisy" Griggs in  Sutherton, North Carolina. She does have a knack to get to the heart of the matter and delve right into business even if she ended up clearing her mother's--or her best friend's--name. I loved that her job was a police beat reporter for the newspaper and knew how the police worked for their investigations. I do love the idyllic scenic settings for Sutherton, which had a Southern small town feel for the location, with all the idiosyncrasies that made it unique and special. I did feel sad for Ichiro, who was looking for answers, and ended up caught in a ghastly mess.  The theme of the story is there's no place like home, anyhow you slice it.

If you love a quick and light read to  breeze through with some charming suspense, non-stop action, plenty of drama, and a spark of intrigue to keep you hooked, Running for Empty is right up your alley. 

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Uncommon Grounds

In Sandra Balzo's Uncommon Grounds, the first installment in the Maggy Thorsen culinary cozy mystery series, she took a 21st twist for this central coffee shop theme. It all started at the grand opening of Maggy's coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, with the two partners. That's when they discovered that Patricia Harper was found dead, electrocution by the espresso maker. A shock to the small town, that's when  Maggy butted heads with the new Sheriff in Town, Jacob Pavlik. It was up to Maggy to find out who killed her and suspicion had turned elsewhere, especially rumors went rampantly wild in the town and other family secrets were exposed. When Patricia Harper's husband David was found dead by a "suicide", everything came to a head when she never expected who done it and why, and it was someone close to her,  before she was next to go.

This was a great new culinary cozy debut to check out and try. I cared about Maggy Thorsen and her small town community in Brookhills, Wisconsin. I thought it was a quaint small town to set up a coffee shop. I also cared about Caren and Sarah and the Harpers, though I thought something was off about them. I thought Gary was okay until the end, and loved the sparks between Maggy and Jake Pavlik, the new sheriff in town. You'll learn a lot about coffee making in this culinary cozy and be delighted with every pleasant twist in this quick read with drama, suspense, intrigue and mystery.

Check out Uncommon Grounds for yourself today!