Book Review: From the Grounds Up by Sandra Balzo

From the Grounds Up
Sandra Balzo
Severn House Publishers, March 2010
ISBN 9780727868305
Hardcover

Maggy Thorsen is looking at possible buildings for her coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds.  She has to reopen after a freak storm takes out the old building.  Nothing suits her, and the reasons all make good business sense.  Her realtor Sarah Kingston is getting frustrated.  Or perhaps it’s all a ploy.  Apparently Sarah wants in on the business and is prepared to offer a great building as her part of the deal.  She owns an old train station, scheduled to be reopened when the new commuter line comes back through Brookhills, Wisconsin.  Such a deal!

It can’t be that easy.  There are problems.  One of them gets killed by a train.  Not pretty.  Was it really an accident?  Sheriff Jake Pavlik has to find out.  He’s less than delighted to see Maggy at the scene.  They are seeing each other, and she’s got an uncanny ability to be involved in a lot of his cases.  Not on purpose, but still it makes for problems.

Accidents continue to occur.  Some of them involve Maggy directly; others are just in her vicinity and/or connected to her.  This does not give Maggy any incentive to back off, no matter how irate Pavlik gets.

This is the fourth in Balzo’s series, and she’s keeping up the good work.  Maggy is interesting, believable, complicated, and sometimes overwhelmed.  Life is like that.  Her relationship with Pavlik is growing and changing in a manner that seems to work well with the characters as Balzo has created them.  No off notes.  I’m hoping to see more from Balzo; she’s got a good thing going here.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, April 2010.

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April 24, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Full Reviews

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