This one picks right up a few weeks after the disaster at the end of the last book. Maggy gets a new partner and starts a new business while solving murders and romancing her boy friend. A vulnerable side of Sarah is revealed throughout the book. The inner dialogue of Maggy’s thoughts are filled with humorous plays-on-words. Frank the sheepdog is a big bundle of comic, often slapstick, moments. As a non-dog person who like Maggy inherited a son’s big dog, I found their relationship, their conversations, and his behavior laugh out loud funny. #5 Maggy Thorsen coffee shop mystery set in fictional Brookhills, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Maggy is looking for somewhere to house Uncommon Grounds, since the coffee shop burned down along with the rest of the small strip mall it was located in during events in the last book. On an almost non-existent budget and now sans Caron, her business partner, who must bow out due to financial strains, Maggy is wondering what to do. Then her moody friend Sarah, a real estate agent, offers to take Caron's place as her partner AND provide a building--an old railroad depot that (unknown to many) is about to become active again when Brookhills once again becomes a train stop. Sarah owns the building, as it was willed to her by her recently-deceased aunt, and her cousin Ronny is a contractor/developer, so it would seem that things are looking up. However, as soon as the papers are signed and they begin making plans, accidents start happening at the depot site, including the death of Sarah's crabby step-uncle, whose car was t-boned by a passing train when it stalled on the tracks. Maggy senses that someone doesn't want her to re-open Uncommon Grounds--at least not at the depot--but who? Of course she begins poking her nose in and with a few dropped clues from her boyfriend the Sheriff, discovers that Uncle Kornell's 'accident' was actually a murder. Love this series with its edgy, slightly irreverent humor, relaxed atmosphere and easy reading style. Maggy is a breath of fresh air compared to most of the cookie-cutter cozy heroines, and her friends are fully-fleshed, great characters too--including her gassy sheepdog, Frank. (She really ought to be nominated for a Watson award for the best sidekick! LOL) Very much looking forward to the next book in the series.
What do You think about From The Grounds Up (2010)?
Mystery was okay; some characters get a bit tiresome what with all the aside comments and bickering.
—Alexa
A quick summer mystery read - somewhat entertaining.
—Ice
Not as good as I remembered, maybe next time?!
—ash
