Book Review: Death Before Decaf by Caroline Fardig

"Death Before Decaf" by Caroline Fardig begins a new series  that comes out November 17th, 2015 starring an outspoken fiery redhead named Juliet Langley. She is a musician and business owner but when her career crashes and the coffee bar she loves is monetarily gutted by her cheating fiancé  Juliet is forced to take a job as the new manager of Java Jive. It's owned by her best friend Pete, they've known each other since University. What could go wrong?

On Juliet's first day she doesn't make a good impression on her staff. She fights with the head cook and alienates the baristas. The day gets even worse when she finds the cook she argued with dead in the dumpster out back. Now she's a suspect in a murder, her employees hate her, Java Jive is hemorrhaging money and she can't count the health code violations she's spotted all over the restaurant.

Juliet wonders what she's gotten herself into. She decides she better find the real killer before the police decide she's the easiest person to charge in the murder. The problem is she's a hotheaded redhead not a sleuth.

This turned out to be quite a fluffy mystery. For me, it was only a three out of five star. I just didn't enjoy the characters, they seemed so one dimensional and obvious. Juliet is  a redhead who actually blames her red hair for having little control of her anger and other emotional outbursts. Pete, her best friend and secret crush is actually called "Saint Pete" in the book and he's too perfect. In fact he's so perfect he becomes milk toast. Many of the other minor characters are similarly one dimensional, the bitchy girlfriend, the sarcastic barista, the lone wolf mystery man and the foul mouthed crackerjack grandma. 

It was hard to believe that the character Juliet, after being so cheated on only a few months ago, would so easily trust and date a guy she knew nothing about. I just never really got to care about who murdered the cook. I gave the book three out of five because the writing was smooth and easy to digest, there were no superfluous filler bits that bore the reader and it made me wish the actual story was better. I've heard that Caroline Fardig has written another series called the Lizzie Hart mysteries that are wildly popular. I just might try one of those next. I don't want to give up on this author quite yet.

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