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Overview
When a mystery writer cries bloody murder, everyone blames her overactive imagination
Thriller scribe Sophie Katz is as hard-boiled as a woman who drinks Grande Caramel Brownie Frappuccinos can be. So Sophie knows it's not paranoia or post-divorce, living-alone-again jitters, when she becomes convinced that a crazed reader is sneaking into her apartment to reenact scenes from her books. The police, however, can't tell a good plot from an unmarked grave.
When a filmmaker friend is brutally murdered in the manner of a death scene in one of his movies, Sophie becomes convinced that a copycat killer is on the loose —and that she's the next target. If she doesn't solve the mystery, her own bestseller will spell out her doom. Cursing her grisly imagination (why, oh, why did she have to pick the ax?), Sophie engages in some real-life gumshoe tactics. The man who swoops in to save her in dark alleys is mysterious new love interest Anatoly Darinsky. Of course, if this were fiction, Anatoly would be her prime suspect.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewThe title of Kyra Davis's debut novel is also a fitting description of its stlye. Blending elements of steamy romance and hard-boiled mystery, this delightfully witty amalgam of chick lit and amateur sleuth mystery (featuring lovable, caffeine-addicted protagonist Sophie Katz) is not only a compelling testimonial to Starbucks; it's also one of the most impressive genre debuts to come along in years!
Sophie is a popular murder mystery novelist living in San Francisco. The biracial wordsmith has it all: a small group of loving (and wildly eccentric) friends, a beautiful apartment, a charismatic feline companion -- and an obsessed fan that may be trying to kill her. After a Hollywood movie producer interested in bringing one of Sophie's novels to the big screen reportedly commits suicide in a bizarre reenactment of a death scene from one of his movies, Sophie senses there is something terribly wrong. That foreboding turns to downright terror when someone begins re-creating scenes from Sophie's latest murder mystery with Sophie herself as the prime target. Can hunky Russian expatriate Anatoly Darinsky help her find the assailant -- or is he the mysterious stalker?
In Sex, Murder and a Double Latte, Davis mixes laugh-out-loud wit, cheeky panache, and pop-culture charm with a fast-paced and lighthearted whodunit that should appeal to anyone who enjoys reading authors like Harley Jane Kozak, Sophie Kinsella, or Elaine Viets. If novels were cups of coffee, Davis's debut would be a Grande Caramel Brownie Frappuccino with extra whipped cream. In a word: delish! Paul Goat Allen
Maureen Corrigan
This story line about a serial killer who commits plagiarism as s/he runs around murdering people has itself been copied so often in movies and novels that it barely counts as a plot. But chic lit mysts are so self-reflexively ironic that they wouldn't be caught dead cloaked in a story line that bespoke earnest imaginative effort. What does count in this subgenre is snappy dialogue, and Sex, Murder and a Double Latte entertainingly talks the talk.— The Washington Post