With Old Town’s DIY Home Decorating Festival in full swing, Sophie’s swamped, juggling a bumper crop of artisans, antique dealers, and decorators for the busy street fair. Still, when her best friend Nina suddenly needs a ride from the airport, Sophie is happy to help . . . until she sees Nina disembarking in a state of disarray. It’s obvious the trip to Portugal soured somewhere along the way. But after one of Nina’s traveling companions turns up murdered the following day, Sophie knows something is truly rotten . . .
Though the crime scene is staged to look like an accident, Sophie isn’t fooled and peels off to conduct her own investigation. Her only clue is a strange image the victim scratched into the soil before dying. Could it point to a cryptic killer in Old Town? A bitter travel adversary? Or a cursed artifact smuggled back from the trip? As the mystery grows, so does the body count, and if Sophie doesn’t pluck the murderer soon, her best friend may be the next to fall . . .
Includes delicious recipes and fabulous DIY decorating tips!
Release Date: May 25, 2021
Series: A Domestic Diva Mystery
Book: 14
Publisher: Kensington
Price: $12.99
A group of tourists, upon returning from a three-week vacation from Portugal, succumb to a series of mysterious deaths, leaving the police baffled for an alternate connection, enter Sophie Winston, neighbor and friend. Join Author Krista Davis, in this superb cozy-murder-mystery, The Diva Serves Forbidden Fruit. This is the 14th book in the Domestic Diva series.
Sophie Winston is the protagonist in this whirlwind murder-mystery. I love her hospitality, forwardness and her amazing determination to protect the vulnerable. She’s also a magnet for dead bodies and unusual circumstances. Even though I think Sophie is great, she is even better with the people she surrounds herself with.
The real winners, and why this book is such a gem, is because of the supporting characters. The camaraderie between the friends was amazing. I can’t decide who was my favorite, they were all so great, Mars, the ex-husband, Bernie, the restaurant owner, Nina, neighbor and friend and poor Humphrey. The dialogue between the friends, and really, throughout the book, was effortless. The other characters in town were lively and entertaining and contributed so much to the plot. I loved how all of them were characterized. This is how you lose yourself in a book.
This cozy mystery was one of the best ones I’ve read in a while! It’s all in the way the story flowed and the exceptionally good dialogue. I loved every bit of it and truly enjoyed my time reading it. If I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about getting back to it. Nerve wrecking in the best way, but still not heavily angsty; a true mystery till the very end. Actually, there’s more than one mystery in this story, which is brilliant, because it throws everything slightly off and keeps you guessing.
This is the first book that I’ve read in this series and I had absolutely no issues falling in love with the characters or their setting. I highly recommend and extra, extra points, because Sophie Winston and her friends, usually gathered around food and those recipes are included at the end of the book. Enjoy!
~ Patricia
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