Live and Let Grind

October 24, 2022

Live and Let Grind

Live and Let Grind (A Coffee Lover’s Mystery)
by Tara Lush

About Live and Let Grind

Live and Let Grind (A Coffee Lover’s Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Florida
Crooked Lane Books (October 11, 2022)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1639101128
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1639101122
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09Q877DDS

Devil’s Beach is percolating with a hot murder case, and reporter-turned-barista Lana Lewis could be the next to get beaned in Tara Lush’s third Coffee Lover’s mystery, perfect for fans of Cleo Coyle and Lucy Burdette.

Laid-off journalist Lana Lewis is thriving as the proprietor of Perkatory, a coffee shop on quirky Devil’s Beach island, Florida. She’s juggling a relationship with police chief Noah Garcia, enjoying the company of her best friend, Erica, and relishing the companionship of her golden Shih Tzu, Stanley. Only problem is her neighbor, Gus, who incessantly uses his leaf blower, disturbing everyone in the neighborhood. Lana has learned to tune it out, but Erica’s rage boils over and she confronts Gus.

Then Gus is found dead, killed when his leaf blower explodes. Erica immediately becomes suspect number one. But there are plenty of other candidates as well: Gus’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Honey Bailey, who thinks she’ll be written out of his will; Mickey Dotson and Doug Beck, who were scalded financially after purchasing a pirate-themed tourist cruise business from Gus; and plenty of angry neighbors who’ve had run-ins with him.

As the clock ticks down will Lana get someone to spill the beans on the killer so she can clear her friend’s name, or will Erica go to jail for a crime she didn’t commit?

About Tara Lush

Tara Lush is a Rita Award finalist, an Amtrak writing fellow, and a George C. Polk Award winning journalist. For the past decade, she’s been a reporter with the Associated Press, covering crime, alligators, natural disasters, and politics. She also writes contemporary romance set in tropical locations. A fan of vintage pulp-fiction book covers, Sinatra-era jazz, and 1980s fashion, she lives with her husband and two dogs on the Gulf coast.

Q&A With the Author
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I love plotting cozy mysteries. I’m also a romance writer and I don’t plot those as heavily. But with my cozies, especially LIVE AND LET GRIND, I spend a couple of weeks plotting each scene, the clues, and the red herrings. I have timelines for each day in the book, and separate plotlines for each character. I even note where Stanley the Shih Tzu is in each chapter, because I don’t want him to be uncared for or ignored — that’s a pet peeve of mine in books, when pets appear in a story and then disappear while the humans are doing other things!

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

I’m plotting a fourth book in the Coffee Lover’s Mystery series right now! This one will involve a garden, some poison, and a mystery about my main character’s father.

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

Hopefully my publisher will want a fifth book in the Coffee Lover’s Mystery series, because in my mind, the characters will have a logical end to their story at the end of the fifth book. At the beginning of 2023 when I’m finished with book four, I’ll pitch book five — and I’ll also pitch an entirely new series that I’ve plotted out! I also write romance under my real name (Tamara Lush), and I have an office romance coming out in January 2023 called CRASH.

How long have you been writing?

I’m a newer cozy mystery author, but I’m not new to fiction! I started writing romance in 2015, and three years later was a RWA RITA finalist for a book that I self-published. I still write romance under my real name (Tamara Lush), and all of those books are published through Wattpad. In 2019, I decided to branch out into cozy mystery under the pen name of Tara Lush. The Coffee Lover’s Mystery series is my first cozy series. I wanted to blend my background as a crime reporter into my fiction, and that’s why I decided to try writing mysteries. I really adore plotting and writing the puzzle of a mystery novel!

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you so much for all of your support, emails, and reviews of my books! I’ve been so pleasantly surprised at how warm and welcoming the cozy community is — it’s a true treat, and I’m hoping to write many more cozies in the future!

Author Links

WEBSITE: https://taralush.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTaraLush/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/the.book.lush/

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20274256.Tara_Lush

Purchase Links

Amazon – BARNES AND NOBLE APPLE KOBO INDIEBOUND GOOGLE PLAY

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

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