Book ~ "Sex, Murder and a Double Latte" (2005) Kyra Davis

From Goodreads ~ 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.

Sophie Katz is a mystery writer. She is excited that a filmmaker is interested in turning her book into a movie ... until he is found dead in his bathtub of an apparent suicide. His death is very similar to a death in one of his movies but that was a murder not a suicide, which leads Sophie to suspect that he has been murdered. When strange things start happening that mirror her book, Sex, Murder and a Double Latte, Sophie suspects she may be the next victim so starts investigating.

Around this time, Sophie meets and starts dating Anatoly, who has recently moved to town, and her friend, Dena, has recently started dating Jason, who is a vampire wannabe. Sophie starts to wonder if they have come into her life just make her the next victim.

This is the first in the Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series (there are seven books in the series). I like reading series so I thought I'd check it out. I liked the writing style ... it was amusing at times. It is written in first person perspective in Sophie's voice. It was published in 2005 so is a bit dated with references to things that were relevant 20 years ago. I liked that she had a cat named Mr. Katz, who was full of personality. Sophie has three good but diverse friends who she leans on ... outspoken and sometimes mean Dena, dumb Mary Ann and Marcus, an overly stereotypical gay hairdresser. The whodunnit was a bit of a stretch. As a head's up, there a lot of swearing and some violence.

I liked it enough to move on to the next book in the series.