Review: Buried on a Sundae

BURIED ON A SUNDAE by Lena Gregory

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, #4 in Series

4****

Blurb: Things have been looking up for Danika Delany’s business—her uncle’s old fashioned malt shop on eastern Long Island. But for her love life? Not so much. After a disastrous date with Detective Jake Barlow, Danika lets her best friends, Gwen and Eli, talk her into a night out at the hottest new nightclub in town. Only, while there, Dani finds her sort-of boyfriend secreted in the shadows on the beach behind the club with crime boss Patrick Johansen’s wife, Angelique! An upset Dani leaves without giving Jake a chance to explain, but when he doesn’t get in touch the next day, she takes a long walk along the beach to reevaluate her love life. That’s where she suddenly stumbles across Angelique’s body buried in the dunes near where she last saw her with Jake. Sure that Jake is innocent—of murder at least—Danika and her friends set out to prove Jake had nothing to do with her murder and stop a killer…before they strike again!

Thoughts: I love Dani! She is so perfectly inept at almost everything. She’s clumsy (falls out of a tree while on a stakeout), can’t cook (though she owns a café), says the wrong things… but she is fiercely loyal to her friends and family. This story is set in a small town on Long Island. Dani recently returned there after living in Manhattan for several years. In this one, her (perhaps) boyfriend, Detective Jake Barlow, is suspected of murdering the wife of a crime boss, Patrick Johansen. He was the last one seen with her and, according to the gossips, was having an affair with her. Dani flip flops between anger at his betrayal and her certainty that he didn’t do what everyone is accusing him of. She and her besties—Gwen and Eli—set out to prove his innocence, dropping them right in the middle of trouble.

There are actually a lot of suspects in the story and, even though I’m usually pretty good at picking out the villain in a cozy mystery, this one had me stumped until the end. Very well done. The only reason this didn’t get a five-star rating was that this was the fourth in a series and I didn’t know what the relationships were between some of the characters. For instance, Eli. How is he friends with Dani and Gwen? It’s a minor thing and probably wouldn’t have been an issue if I’d started with the first book. So that’s what I recommend.

Highly recommended (but you might want to start with the first one first).

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”