Customer Reviews

Holiday Grind (Coffee House Mystery)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my favorite mystery series and the most recent installment does not disappoint. I am not sure how the quality has consistently remained so high, but it has. This is the eighth installment and it is just as good as all the others.

It's Christmas time in New York City and at the Village Blend Coffee House. Snow is falling, lights are twinkling and a charity Santa is found dead in the alley by Clare Cosi. Clare is the co-owner and manager of the Village Blend, an independent coffee house in the heart of Greenwich Village. She has a propensity for finding dead bodies and a strong need to help solve the murder. Since the expired Santa was an acquaintance of hers that often came into the Blend to warm up from his rounds, this time is no exception.

As with all the Coffeehouse mysteries, the setting is paramount. The holiday season and all its craziness is written about perfectly with the scenes coming alive in the reader's mind. Many of the characters we have come to love (and hate) are back including Matt and Bree, Mike Quinn and many of the baristas at the Blend. A great, believable mystery is at the heart of this book and it kept me guessing until the end.

While I love the series and would encourage the reader to read all of them from the beginning, it would be possible for someone to pick this one up as it stands on its own.

Another winner in a winning series !

I've been a reader of this series from the beginning, as well as a frequent visitor to the virtual Village Blend coffeehouse, [...]. This latest installment is a winner. She really brings the feel of Christmas in the city, in particular, the Village, alive. I won't recap the bones of the story, as that's been handled by the other reviewers. Suffice it to say, the mystery is a particularly good one, and I didn't see all the aspects of the end, coming. Clare gets in some comical situations, as well as some dangerous ones, which gives the book a good balance. I enjoy the way her relationship with her ex-husband is handled,: "We'd run our wagon wheels over this road so often, the grooves reached the earth's mantle", as well as her current relationship with Detective Mike Quinn, who comes with an ex as well as two children. It gives a realistic look at a mature relationship that comes with baggage. I'm not a huge fan of similes, and she uses a few, but contains herself, unlike some other authors I could name HA! A special bonus is the last section of the book meant to serve as a primer of all things coffee related: history, terms, drink recipes. She includes recipes for holiday baking as well, and infuses those with things related to characters in the story. Her directions are very specific as well and easy to follow. Well done! I'm waiting (impatiently) for the next book!

What Does Christmas Taste like? (opening line of Chapter one)

And smell like and make one's mouth water for drinks and treats not usually part of one's normal diet.

This December Holiday entry in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse mystery series, with Clare Cosi, head barista and sleuth, has the gift for the reader of additional recipes for various special holiday coffee drinks as well as desserts: And, much information on the growing and selling of coffee and how it is made.

But the real treat is the excellent writing and character development from author Coyle.

Coyle has the ability to describe characters in terms of appearance, personality, and even their relationships to each other in a few words, so they become instantly recognizable.

And, it is a large cast, with more than one red herring.

I usually solve mysteries early in books and was delighted that it took me half the novel to know for certain the identity of the red haired woman, after discarding three other possibilities.

Even the coincidence of Clare also solving the death from a cold case gnawing at boyfriend and NYPD detective Mike Quinn does not detract because of the realism under the frothy fun.

This is not an English country house mystery in which a set number of characters are involved, but a large city with an ever expanding cast, many with secrets to hide and less than stellar motives.

This could have been a shorter book, a slighter book, and it still would have been a good standard crime novel, but the fleshing out of events and relationships adds substance to the pleasure in the reading.

The ongoing lives of the main characters are also interesting, and I look forward to more. Even secondary characters such a Claire's former mother-in-law and Sgt. Franco add delight and depth to the novel.

There is also the encouragement to actually read Dicken's Christmas Carol, which far too many of us only know from various movie adaptations, so that we might discover the real lesson in the story.

It is not necessary to have read previous Clare Cosi mysteries to understand or enjoy this book. This was my first foray into this series, and I did not need previous knowledge of the characters or setting to enjoy it from the beginning. Naturally, now I am on the hunt for the rest of the books.

I want to know more about what happened with Clare and international coffee buyer Matteo (And, one can only hope, his new wife) as well as how Clare met Mike Quinn.

I confess to coming from a family of tea drinkers and considered this a bit of an adventure in entering a foreign culture. I am also allergic to wheat, so with one exception (Which requires knowing how to make espresso, which I sadly do not) the desserts were also impossible for me, but I read them all eagerly anyway, salivating all the while.

Anyone who wants more recipes and information should check the author's website at [...]. There is also a link there for this author's other delightful mystery series, Haunted Bookshop, written as Alice Kimberly.

As my previous reviews of her books surely demonstrate, I've enjoyed every one the Clare Cosi mystery series, set in a Greenwich Village coffee shop. So when the author offered me an advanced reading copy of this latest book, I said YES with the enthusiasm I might ordinarily reserve for answering, "Would you like a free chocolate-hazelnut biscotti?" I'm so very glad I did.

This installment is set soon after Thanksgiving, when Clare is trying to invest her staff with a little holiday spirit. She's adding new items to the coffeehouse menu, flavored lattes that capture "what Christmas tastes like" to different people -- a suggestion made by a "traveling Santa," one of the charity-money-raising Santas whom she's befriended. When Al is found dead -- by Clare -- she's certain that it was murder, NOT a mugging gone wrong. And after Al's daughter pleads with her to help... Well, you know what happens. Clare has to investigate!

The result is, easily, as enjoyable as the rest of the series: good storytelling, believable situations (with the nit-picking exception that I don't buy that the holiday-loving Clare wouldn't have read the original Dickens Christmas Carol), and regular characters who each have their own story arcs. I'm glad to see more of barista Esther Best, for instance, and even Java the cat gets a few walk-on parts. The mystery is fun to puzzle over, certainly. And you'll continue to learn more about coffee, along with enjoying a large section of recipes for holiday treats (from latkes to Italian cookies) which could probably supply most office parties for the entire season.

While most cozy mysteries do really demand that you start with the first in the series, I think this one could be read standalone more than most. If the premise appeals to you (I know some people really love Christmas-time mysteries) don't be dissuaded by the fact that you don't know What Has Gone Before. It'll be fine.

All in all: a good book to curl up with in front of a roaring fire.

I have read all of the Coffee House Mysteries to date and this one let me down a bit. Once the story got going it was good, but the slow beginning and the jumpy feel lacked that initial spark for me.

When traveling Santa Alfred Glockner fails to show at the Village Blend for Clare Cosi's fa-la-la-la-la latte holiday party, Clare takes it upon herself to go out in the freezing snow to find him. Unfortunately, she finds him dead in a nearby alley from what appears to be a random mugging. A couple of things just do not add up and once again, Clare sets out to do her Nancy Drew thing.

As the story falls into place, it is not just Santa that has a couple of secrets this holiday season and with the help of Madam, who just happens to know the right people, plus Clare's usual cast of characters - not to mention a new vigilante cop - the story slowly unfolds until you hit the end and think "that was it, this long meandering book and boom it's over".

As I said, it was not my favorite of the series, the beginning did not seem as well laid out as the previous books and the writing was a bit roundabout. Parts were thrown in, Mike's ex-wife, that were not necessary. There did not seem to be as much humor as the other books - so over all I would say that this is only "so-so" as compared to her previous offerings.

Do not be misled by the page count in this book. It says 384 pages but in truth the story itself is only 279 pages. The remaining 105 pages are recipes, tips and information concerning holiday gift giving organizations. Not that that is wrong, it just misleads the reader when you know the story is ending, but there is quite a bit of pages to go.

"Holiday Grind" is full of holiday spirit and festive treats. The recipes look terrific, I agree that the red and green biscotti are a "must-bake". Reading this book did make me want to run out and buy a holiday latte! I especially liked the different holiday treats from various cultures and faiths.
The mystery itself was was solid and left me guessing until the end. Yes, Clare solves the mystery single-handedly, but she is the heroine! That is kind of how these things work :) Clare's rescue from the river made for some especially humorous moments.
There are a couple little things that prevented me from giving this book five stars....unfortunately, they are ongoing annoyances. Frankly, I think Matt is slimy and I find it really distasteful and creepy the way he is constantly copping a feel of Clare. Even with a shared history, I don't think it is very realistic or entertaining that Clare allows Matt to put his hands all over her and make suggestive comments. Ew! Not to mention that Matt and Bree's "honeymoon phase" didn't even last half a book! The other thing that "grinds" my gears (pun intended!) is how bratty Joy acts. She is not very nice to her mom, but her absentee dad can do no wrong. I hope Coyle has Joy outgrow this skewed view of her parents soon. Her snotty attitude takes away from the warm feeling of the books at times.
Overall, I enjoyed this entry in the series and can't wait to use some of the recipes and ideas this holiday season!

It is the holiday season and Clare Cosi, manager of the Village Blend Coffee House in Greenwich Village, is gathering up a group of friends to help her decide what lattes will remind her patrons of Christmas. A red-headed beauty crashes the party, but turns vicious when Clare insists it is a private affair. Clare wonders where Alf, a traveling Santa, is as he promised his good friend he would be there.

Her ex husband and café partner Matteo Allegro tells her he has seen Alf and Clare goes to look for him. She sees his sleigh in an alley so she enters only to find his corpse near the dumpster. The police assume a mugging robbery occurred, but Clare ponders what she saw at the crime scene and thinks otherwise. She returns to the alley in daylight and climbs up a fire escape to the fourth floor where she finds a bullet on the windowsill. She is arrested as an accomplice, but the lead detective has her released based on their discussion the night before. Clare investigates and almost gets killed.

Cleo Coyle writes some of the best amateur sleuth tales with her Greenwich Village coffeehouse mysteries and her Haunted Bookshop mysteries written as Alice Kimberly. Clare is a breath of fresh air with her honesty, caring nature, and her perhaps naive belief in the goodness of people. The whodunit contains red haired herrings and amusing scenes, but her top rate percolating investigation, which causes friction between her and her police detective boyfriend, remains the key to HOLIDAY GRIND.

Harriet Klausner

It's Christmas and thoughts of holiday-themed lattes, visit with family and friends were on Clare's mind when she found Santa's body in an alley. I really liked this murder mystery and the spirit of the holiday season woven throughout. The plot was well written and the dialogue entertaining. This page-turning and action-filled mystery kept me guessing with surprising results. The appearance of Madame is always a welcome sight. This holiday fare was a joyous read.

Another wonderful read by Cleo Coyle. This is the 8th book in the Coffeehouse series. Claire really gets herself into some interesting situations and some are hilarious. It is nice to see all the characters again and some old. Always nice to see a closer relationship with Mike Quinn. As always I will be looking forward to book 9.

Although HOLIDAY GRIND arrived too late for feature in our holiday issue, it deserves ongoing recommendation for any solid mystery library, offering a fine holiday-based mystery surrounding Clare Cosi, owner of the Village Blend coffeehouse who finds St. Nick dead in the snow. Suspecting it's more than a random mugging, Clare begins an investigation that endangers her own life in this holiday thriller.