Tyora Moody
Books: Mystery
Joss Miller Mysteries: Double Mocha Blues (2023), A Latte Mayhem (2024), Mint Flavored Trouble (2024), Steamy Espresso Secrets (2025)
Joss Miller Mysteries
Double Mocha Blues (2023)
Jocelyn “Joss” Miller is releasing a podcast on the murder of her grandfather–an unsolved murder from more than fifty years ago.
This series is a spin off from another series, where apparently Joss discovered who her maternal grandmother was–and why her mother had been given up for adoption right after she was born. Joss now lives with her grandmother, while working at the local coffee shop.
Usually, Eleanor Olsen started the day with a caramel latte or, if she was being more health conscious, she ordered a green tea chai. I knew her writing was going strong when she started the day with black coffee.
As with most first books in a cozy mystery series, someone Joss had argued with is found dead, and Joss is suspected by some of murder, but not by one of the detectives on the case.
It’s a cozy mystery, despite the fact it deals with racism and town bullies.
Characters: Joss Miller, Detective Andre Baez, Nyla Masters, Fay Everett, Hailey Ramsey, Joe Phillips, Eleanor Olsen, Sammie Morrison, Claude McKnight, Maggie Nelson, DJ Blaze, Leesa Patterson, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Thelma, Clarice Miller, Chris Black, Officer John Lyons, Briana Jones, Albertine Lancaster, Rae Silva
Cover art: TywebbinCreations
Publisher: Tymm Publishing
Rating: NR
A Latte Mayhem (2024) #2
It’s
nearly the anniversary of the disappearance of Rebecca Montgomery, and
Joss is considering doing the next season of her podcast about the
artist who disappeared–especially since her friend Claude has repeatedly
been accused of being behind her disappearance.
We argued the day before. Me and Becca. I never imagined that I would never see her again. It’s truly not a good idea to stay angry with someone.
Like the first book, Double Mocha Blues, I liked the mystery and the story and the characters. But also like the first book, I kept coming across copyediting errors that distracted me and threw me out of the story.
I like Joss and her friends and her family. I like how Joss tries to do the smart and safe thing and takes into consideration danger versus learning more.
I just wish the story had better editing.A Latte Mayhem
Characters: Joss Miller, Detective Andre Baez, Claude McKnight, Fay, Liam Holbrook, Rick Nelson, Louise Hopkins, Simone Masters, Vivian Ashford, Eleanor Olsen, Ethan Turner, Rebecca Montgomery, Olivia Montgomery, Eugeena Patterson-Jones, Detective Grayson Beckett, Police Chief Nolan Whitaker, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Thelma, Nyla, Miranda
Cover art: TywebbinCreations
Publisher: Tymm Publishing
July 2025 | Rating: 7/10
Mint Flavored Trouble (2024) #3
This is the sequel to A Latte Mayhem, and finds Joss trying to prepare herself to testify in front of the grand jury about the incident with Caleb Davenport.
I tried to remember what my therapist had taught me. Breathe. Count. Ground yourself.
She is also wondering about doing a third season of her podcast, despite the problems of the previous season.
I had a list of cases that I’d pulled together, but the first two seasons had affected my mental health. If I continued the podcast, I needed to choose wisely.
The strengths of this story were Joss’s dealing with the aftermath of the attack in the previous book, and recognizing the danger those episodes had placed her in.
Here, she is again involved in looking at an unsolved death, this time a hit and run that had occurred a year before, only the widow and her husband’s family are not on speaking terms and things are fraught.
Joss didn’t do anything particularly stupid–in fact she tried to be as safe as was possible considering the circumstances, but sometimes I really had to wondering about her nosiness.
Characters: Joss Miller, Detective Andre Baez, Briana Jones, Fay Everett, Louise Hopkins, Eugeena Patterson-Jones, KJ / Khalil Rogers, Cindy, Evelyn Foster, Claude McKnight, Lily Hartman, Terrell Hartman, Marianne Hartman, Allison Hartman, Bishop Emerson Hartman, Bishop James Danvers, Grant Carlson, Sophia Carlson, Jake Reaves, Clarice Miller, Nate Miller, Leesa, Phil, Ricky, Devonté, Carolyn Becker, DJ Nyla B, Detective Grayson Beckett, Chief Prosecutor Michael Rutledge, Caleb Davenport
Cover by TywebbinCreations
Published by Tymm Publishing
September 2025 | Rating: 7/10
Steamy Espresso Secrets (2025) #4
Joss
is starting the first Media Arts summer camp at the Rebecca Montgomery
Art Center, and although overwhelmed, she is excited–and not just
because she is teaching a day on podcasting.
But the man who volunteered to teach a day of photography to the kids seems a little off to her, and she’s not sure why.
When Lens was alive, Devante looked down on Lens’s form of photography. To me, Lens created art. Devante is more into what he can get paid for.
I had to give Devante credit. He was a natural with the children and didn’t seem to mind responding to zillions of questions.
Especially when his “assistant” doesn’t help much, and then asks Joss to look into the death of her brother for a new season of Joss’s podcast.
To add more confusion to her life, Nate, her brother, is in town and she is starting to learn about the man who all but disappeared from her life after the death of their father.
Nate answered, “When I left here after Dad died, I enlisted in the Army.”
I choked out, “Army? You were in the Army and we didn’t even know?” My brother really lived this whole life away from here, away from us.
I enjoyed the story, however there two things I had issues with, the second of which is definitely a me thing.
The first, is that I really really wanted the influencer to have been the killer. She was rude, demanding, entitled, and pretty much what I would expect an influencer to be.
The second, which is a me thing, is related to the religious underpinning of the story. I truly don’t have a problem with the strong Christian themes–especially since Joss comes across as a genuinely good person who lives the ideals of Christianity, instead of judging and looking down upon those who don’t believe the same as her.
But.
The idea of praying for divine intervention is something I have serious problems with. Without going into detail, divine intersession bothers me because I feel it contradicts the concept of free will, and secondly because of the capriciousness of whether God chooses to act.
A better explanation is this quote from Babylon 5.
I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?’ So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
That is entirely a me thing, but it’s something that bothers me whether I come across it in fiction or in real life.
Characters: Joss Miller, Detective Andre Baez, Nathan David Miller, Clarice Miller, Maya McAbee, Jerome ‘Lens’ McAbee, Devante Cavanaugh, Ace Clark, Tre Kennedy, Zara, Detective Sarah Wilkes, Detective Grayson Beckett, Detective Amos Jones, Detective Chris Black, Kisha Black, Leesa Patterson-Black, Eugeena Patterson-Jones, Amani Gladstone, Fay Everett, Hailey Ramsey, Rosemary Gladstone, Claude McKnight, Malik Porter, Zara Cavanaugh, Ruth and Thelma, Jonathan and Catherine Caldwell, Eleanor Olsen, Joe Phillips, Lily Hartman, Anita Stewart, Kia Winters, Leesa, Carmen Patterson, Cassandra
Cover by TywebbinCreations
Publisher: Tymm Publishing
August 2026 | Rating: 6/10