Hi, everyone! I’m Halley Greer and it’s great to visit with you here on dru’s book musings. My days always begin with coffee. Usually a cup or two for myself made in a French press, then pulling perfect espresso shots and creating latte art for friends and customers. Until a few months ago, I was a broke, unemployed barista living in Nashville. Now I own and run a movie theater showing classic films, complete with a coffee and wine bar! If this turn of events seems surprising to you, imagine how I felt when an attorney informed me I’d inherited the theater from a great uncle I remember meeting only once, when I was eight years old.

I live in Utopia Springs, a lovely tourist town nestled in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains. But my job and address aren’t the only things that have changed. I have a whole new life with new friends – some of them more like family, really. Although we’ve known each other a short time, a lot has happened. They initially pitched in to help me out of respect and friendship for my late Uncle Leon. But through helping me settle in and generously helping me renovate the theater, we became friends. And then there was the murder.

During intermission on the night of the theater’s grand reopening, featuring “My Fair Lady,” a member of the audience turned up dead. Not exactly the debut I had dreamed of. But my new friends rallied to my aid when the police started eyeing me as a prime murder suspect. Artists and gallery owners George and Trudy have become like surrogate grandparents—and are almost as eccentric as my real-life grandmother who lives in Sun City, Arizona and calls me cupcake. And my new bestie, Kendra, who owns the escape rooms business across the street from the theater, is my new partner in crime-solving. We share in common not only being the youngest women business owners in town, but we’ve both suffered the loss of someone very close to us. Maybe that’s why we bonded so quickly. We also both have budding romances, of sorts. But, I have enough problems figuring out my own potential love life. I don’t have the time to make sense of Kendra’s baffling relationship with Joe.

I live in an apartment above the movie theater with a comes-and-goes-as-she-pleases Calico cat named Eartha Kitty, that I also sort of inherited from Uncle Leon. When I’m not serving superb coffee in the theater’s coffee bar most mornings and during shows, or welcoming patrons for classic film showings—or looking for a killer, I’m mostly sorting through piles of Uncle Leon’s old junk. Um, I mean possessions. I keep hoping to learn something about this mysterious uncle who, for reasons unknown to me, decided to make me his heir. Kendra and I did stumble across a couple of odd items that I hope will eventually yield some answers. In the meantime, please drop by the Star Movie Palace for coffee and a movie.

My Fair Latte is the first book in the NEW “Café Cinema” cozy mystery series, released March 3, 2020.

Broke, unemployed barista Halley Greer is shocked when she inherits an Art Deco movie palace from the great uncle, she remembers meeting once as a child. She moves to the charming tourist town of Utopia Springs, Arkansas to claim her legacy.

In addition to the timeworn theater, she discovers she’s also inherited a trash-heaped apartment, family secrets, her uncle’s friends, a stealthy calico kitty—and an adversary.

With a whole latte help from her new friends, the feisty barista fixes up and re-opens the theater as a coffee and wine bar, showing classic films. She generates some steam with a hunky local—and risks getting burned. The opening night of My Fair Lady looks like a big hit, and her new life feels like a bit of movie magic, until a customer turns up dead during intermission.

With the cops eyeing her as a suspect, Halley digs into the victim’s life and runs into a tangle of blackmail and secrets. Can Halley and her friends unmask a killer before the curtain comes down for keeps?

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About the author
A decade ago, author Vickie Fee moved from Memphis on the banks of the muddy Mississippi River to Marquette on the shores of chilly Lake Superior, taking her accent, her sense of humor, and her recipe for Jack Daniels whiskey balls with her. She pens cozy mysteries with fun, feisty heroines. My Fair Latte is the first book in her new Café Cinema series. When she’s not dawdling on social media and swilling coffee, you can find her at vickiefee.com and in the coop at chicksonthecase.com.

All comments are welcomed.