We are back in Portland with Sage and the Ground Rules coffee company. They are working with a whiskey company for an Irish to go. There's a festival introducing the canned drink. Sage and the coffee cart are there. There's a public altercation with Mark Jeffries and Harley. Then Mark's dead body is found by the company car. Harley is a prime suspect and MIA for most of the book. Sage decides to help investigate and find the real killer.

I really enjoyed this book and I love the series. Once I started reading I was hooked and I couldn't stop reading. I had no idea whodunnit. I really enjoyed following the clues with Sage.

recipes, cozy-mystery, Oregon, small-business, murder, murder-investigation, coffee-culture, coffee-shop, amateur-sleuth, festivals, unpleasant-victims, self-importance, family, family-support, relatives, relationships, siblings, lawyers, local-law-enforcement, friends, friendship****
Sage (and her business coffee cart) is an integral part of the music festival. One of the other vendors is a rather nasty businessman known to indulge in the practice of revenge porn. Until Sage finds him dead at the side of her car. Now the investigations begin!
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected proof copy from Kensington Books/Kensington Cozies via NetGalley. Avail April 29, 2025
#FatalBrouhaha by @writeremmelineduncan #GroundRulesMysteriesBk5 #NetGalley @kensingtonbooks #cozymystery #coffeeculture @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble **** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones

I enjoy this series and am not surprised that it was finally Mark that was done in. He had been a thorn in Sage's side since the beginning.. There are plenty of suspects. Sage sets out to find out who did to get her partner Harley out of suspicion. All of this occurs during a music/craft festival that Sage has partnered with a whiskey company. The wind up to the conclusion goes along at a good pace. This was overall a fun read.

Sage and that gang are back on the festival circuit and of course happen upon a dead body. This time it's Mark, former employer of several Ground Rules employees and series bugbear who has finally come a cropper. There's no shortage of suspects including multiple ex-wives, burned would-be business partners, and blackmail victims. Sage, helped by her soon-to-be stepson Nico and the rest of her crew, has to figure out how to exonerate her coffee roaster in between pulling espresso shots and mixing up coffee tonics. Sage is a little more acerbic in this installment than in those past, but she has to be getting tired of tripping over corpses.

#FatalBrouhaha #NetGalley is another great addition to this series.
Sage is a wonderful character and the author does a fantastic job of bringing all the characters to life. Each time I open one of these books, I feel like I'm catching up with old friends.
This book is definitely well done, the mystery reflects around the death of the owner of another coffee shop, who has close ties to Sage and her parter Harley. Sage knows she needs to help with the investigation unless she wants Harley to end up behind bars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for selecting me to read an advanced copy of this book.

This was another quick, enjoyable read. I really like this series and its characters. Sage is an interesting protagonist and I can't wait until her mysterious con artist mother finally makes an appearance.