Adult

As someone who has smoked weed almost every day for 50 years, author Catherine Hiller has produced an entertaining and positive narrative about long-term cannabis use. She describes climbing filthy tenement stairs in NYC to get her bi-monthly supply, giving advice about grass to an octogenarian couple, going to the Burning Man festival, filming Paul Bowles, smoking pot in the Caribbean, interviewing John Updike about marijuana, and being among the film crew at Woodstock.

Fall arrives early in the High Country of North Carolina, but journalist AnnaLise Griggs is more concerned about one particular trio of visitors: Benjamin Rosewood, his wife Tanja and their daughter, Suzanne, especially as AnnaLise and Ben have history. When two sudden and unexpected deaths occur, AnnaLise must protect herself and the place she loves as she is forced to confront how far a person might go to get --- and keep --- what they believe should be their own.

Life on Sutherton's Main Street has always been inexplicably hazardous. But the day Daisy Griggs siphoned three pints of blood from poor Mrs. Bradenham seemed to set a new standard. Now more and more people are dying and unless Daisy’s daughter can figure out why, her mother may be next.

There's a chill in the Wisconsin air and it's a shot in the arm --- or 'triple shot' in this case --- to Uncommon Grounds, the Brookhills coffeehouse owned by Maggy Thorsen and real estate maven Sarah Kingston. Two estate agents have died lately, and Sarah herself is under investigation for irregularities at her job. Then a stench begins to percolate through the coffeehouse, and soon it's clear that corpses --- like other bad things --- do indeed come in threes.

When Maggy Thorsen’s coffee house, Uncommon Grounds, is virtually obliterated by a snowstorm, she and her friend Sarah resolve to reopen --- and Maggy’s found the perfect spot near the train station, just in time for the opening of the new commuter route. But when Sarah’s uncle dies suddenly, in the first of a series of ‘accidents’, it’s clear that someone doesn’t want Uncommon Grounds to reopen. Maggy, however, has no intention of yielding...

Maggy Thorsen, co-owner of the Brookhills coffee-house Uncommon Grounds, is trapped in a shopping mall by a snow storm which cuts the electricity and phone lines. She finds the body of Way Benson, a local developer and owner of the mall. Maggy's discovery unearths other refugees of the storm and it seems that more than one of these people has a motive for killing the arrogant Way. Then there is another murder...

Heres a tip: If your ex-husband's mistress-cum-missus asks for your help in proving that he cheated on her while he was married to you, just say no. And, whatever you do, dont invite her in... Coffeehouse owner Maggy Thorsen does just that when Rachel Slattery Thorsen comes knocking on her door. When the new Mrs. Thorsen disappears that same evening, Maggy quickly finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation.