Today I'm happy to welcome Detective Jake Barlow to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Jake on the pages of the Coffee & Cream Café Mystery series by Lena Gregory. ROCKY ROAD TO MURDER is the sixth book in the series and was released this past week.
By Detective Jake Barlow
Although, lately, it seems most of my interests revolve around Danika Delaney. I’ll admit I have a sweet spot for her, even if our first two dates ended pretty disastrously. Looking back, I can see the humor. There are two reasons I haven’t yet pushed to have a more serious relationship, even after blurting that I loved her in the heat of a particularly intense moment. One, I don’t think Dani’s ready, and I’m afraid if I push, she’ll bolt. And two, every time I turn around there’s another murder to investigate, and Dani’s right there in the middle of it.
I hate the thought of her and her friends being in danger, which they often are. But, and if you tell Dani I said this I will deny it, they’re good at it. Dani tends to see things from a perspective no one else does, and she’s great at solving puzzles. I just wish they’d stay off killers’ radar. I would like to see our relationship head in a more serious direction—if she could just stop stumbling over dead bodies and interfering in my investigations. But that’s one of the things I lov…uh…like most about her—she’s got such a good heart and always wants to help people out.
All that can make dating a little difficult. So, for the moment, I spend most of my time trying to keep her out of trouble. Not that she means to get herself into these messes (or so she keeps claiming), but the woman seems to be a magnet for trouble.
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Review
The Sixth Coffee & Cream Café Mystery
Life can never be easy for Danika Delaney. She is thrilled to be attending the Independence Day party at the Rutherford Manor as well as providing their desserts when her mother calls to say Sunday's Independence Day party has been moved to Friday and Danika needs to provide the dessert. Two parties and two desserts on the same day? As her mother guilts her into agreeing (like she even had a choice) best friends Gwen and Eli convince her she can indeed do both. But mishaps at her mother's leads to tragedy at the Rutherford's when Dani finds Jake over their hostess's dead body, a parfait by her side. Could peanuts have gotten into her dessert despite all of the precautions taken? Or was it murder? When the husband fingers Dani for the crime she knows she has to investigate.
What impressed me most about ROCKY ROAD TO MURDER, indeed all of the books in the Coffee & Cream Café Mystery series, is not just the well plotted mystery, but the love. I'm not even talking about the romantic love, which is nice, but the deep love of family and friends. These friends will do anything for each other...family too. There may be problems, but these people stick together no matter what. When trouble comes they are there to support...and add a few laughs. For this series is laugh out loud funny. From self deprecating remarks to slapstick action you'll be laughing even as you get the warm fuzzies.
The mystery here was compelling. Did Dani or Eli make a deadly mistake by somehow getting peanuts in the order of a highly allergic person? Does Dani have a doppelganger or is someone trying to frame her? Could her family actually be responsible? Does her death have to do with her refusal to sell the property that's been in her family for generations? I loved how Dani and her friends investigated all possibilities and I loved Dani's brilliant distraction in the final confrontation.
Scoops of delicious fun sprinkled with a few thrills and dollops of romance make ROCKY ROAD TO MURDER a spectacularly scrumptious mystery.
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Rocky Road to Murder (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries) by Lena Gregory
About Rocky Road to Murder
Rocky Road to Murder (Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery 6th in Series
Setting - New York
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing (July 1, 2025)
Number of Pages - 220
From author Lena Gregory comes a tasty summer murder mystery...
Danika Delaney is thrilled that her old fashioned malt shop, the Coffee & Cream Café, has gotten a catering contract for the biggest party of the season, the Rutherford Manor Fourth of July gala. She’ll be providing desserts for the party as well as attending the exclusive event on Eastern Long Island.
However her path to the gala quickly becomes a rocky road...
Dani arrives at the event, only to find the gala's hostess, Cressida Rutherford, dead! What's worse, one of Dani's signature parfaits sits next to the dead woman, with what looks like peanuts in it—a food Cressida is severely allergic to. Amid the melted ice cream mess, Dani initially blames herself, thinking she made a mistake while rushing with the desserts. However she quickly learns that what appeared to be an accident was actually foul play, and suddenly Dani has to spring into action proving that she isn't the perpetrator. Along with her friends, Dani uncovers a string of people in Cressida's life who might have wanted the socialite dead. Can she prove her innocence and make sure the killer gets their just desserts?
About Lena Gregory
Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries, which take place on a small island between the north and south forks of Long Island, New York, the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest, the Mini-Meadows Mysteries, set in a community of tiny homes in Central Florida, and the Coffee & Cream Café Mysteries, which take place in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, New York.
Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, but she recently traded in cold, damp, gray winters for the warmth and sunshine of central Florida, where she now lives with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.
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