Battered and Buried (All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery, #7) by Lena Gregory #bookreview #mystery

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Title: Battered and Buried

Author:  Lena Gregory

Publisher: Beyond the Page

Publication Date: March 19, 2024

Page Count:  241

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

The best-laid plans may go awry, but the best-laid clues could frame a man for murder . . .

Never one to let a day off work go to waste, café owner Gia Morelli and a friend head out for a blissful kayaking trip through the local national forest. But the peacefulness of the day is soon shattered when they come across Cole, her head cook, standing over a dead body. Worse still, the victim was a lifelong enemy of Cole’s, and clues found on the body point to the cook as the culprit. When the police take Cole in and subject him to an intense grilling, Gia vows to do everything she can to prove his innocence.

As even more incriminating evidence surfaces—including when the murder weapon itself is found hidden at the café—Gia knows she’s up against someone brutal enough to kill and devious enough to frame Cole for the deed. With the police ready to make an official arrest and wrap up what they consider an open-and-shut case, Gia turns for help to an old friend who’s not above breaking the law himself. Because if she can’t find the killer, Cole may go from serving up hot dishes to serving a life sentence . . .

Battered and Buried by Lena Gregory is the seventh book in the cozy All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series. Each book in the series centers around it’s own mystery that will be fully solved within the book so they could be read and enjoyed as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so. However, there will be some continuing character development that carries over from book to book for those that follow the series from the beginning.

The All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series features Gia Morelli who is a New Yorker at heart but after going through a messy divorce Gia decided to follow her best friend down to central Florida. The small town of Boggy Creek is certainly the exact opposite of what Gia was used to but she was determined to make a success out of her new diner she’d opened, the All-Day Breakfast Café.

Somehow Gia’s life in the small town has been balanced between running her cafe, taking care of her puppy Thor and solving murders. This time around Gia thought she was going to have a relaxing time going out kayaking with her friend but of course comes across yet another dead body on the trip. The worst part of finding another murder victim is that Gia’s own cook, Cole, is standing over the body and the two have quite the history together making Cole suspect number one in the case and Gia knows she needs to clear his name.

The All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series is another cozy series I have been following from the beginning and really do enjoy returning to time and again. The series has all of that fun quirkiness that I enjoy, a cute critter companion to the lead and fun characters to follow along with. Seeing this one set in Florida I also jumped to thinking tourist trap but no, this is small town, off the beaten path Florida so it also gets that small town charm nod. With another fun mystery here in book seven I will definitely return If there is any more additions to the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

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, and the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest.

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island. She recently relocated to Florida with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, jigsaw puzzles, 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.

To learn more about Lena and her latest writing endeavors, visit her website at http://www.lenagregory.com/ and be sure to sign up for her newsletter http://lenagregory.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9765d0711ed4fab4fa31b16ac&id=49d42335d1.