Welcome! My Friday was spent doing laundry, baking cookies, and doing housework in between catering to my animals. I need to find a way to install a doggie door! It would make my life so much easier. I asked my father to install one about ten years ago, but it did not happen. Cleo Coyle is the author of The Coffeehouse Mystery series. You can find a complete list of the books in the series here. You can find more information about Cleo Coyle and her novels on her website.
Dead Cold Brew by Cleo Coyle is
the sixteenth book in A Coffeehouse Mystery series. Clare Cosi is the manager and master roaster
at Village Blend in Greenwich Village, New York. Clare loves the job despite the contact with
her ex-husband, Matteo “Matt” Allegro.
Matt visits to tell Clare about a great opportunity. Victor Fontana is the head of a consortium
that has built a new ship that is a re-creation of the S.S. Andrea Doria. The original ship sank sixty years ago in
1956. Village Blend is one of five
companies competing to be the exclusive supplier of coffee for the ship. Clare needs to come up with a unique blend
for the competition. Clare is thrilled
until she reads the morning paper.
Someone is going around shooting cops.
Clare’s boyfriend is Lt. Michael “Mike” Quinn and he is the head of the
OD Squad for the NYPD. Mike stops by
Village Blend with Detective Sully Sullivan to reassure Clare. Sully leaves and they hear a gunshot. Sully has been shot and Clare sees someone
resembling Panther Man leaving the area (this does not go over well with the
police). Matt receives a visit from an
attorney. It seems a special inheritance
has been left for Matt and Sophia Campana (and their children). Upon opening the lockbox, the discover a
letter and the Occhio del Gatto (Eye of the Cat). This gem was supposedly sunk with the Andrea
Doria. The one person who may have
answers is Gustavo Campana. He was on
board the Andrea Doria. When the group
goes to visit Gus, they discover him unconscious in his apartment. Gus was poisoned and Clare sees someone
fleeing the scene. Someone is after the
diamond. Clare wants to find out what
happened sixty years ago on that ship, but she is also worried about the safety
of Mike with a cop killer on the loose in New York. Will Clare be able to unravel this mystery
before the killer strikes again?
Dead Cold Brew is nicely written
and full of action. The novel is packed
with characters and activities (I did not tell you everything that occurred in
this book). I found it difficult to keep
track of the various people and their plot lines. The pace of the novel is slow (the book
seemed to go on forever). The author is
very descriptive and includes details of drinks, scenery, food items, etc. Some information is repeated throughout the
book. I give Dead Cold Brew 3 out of 5
stars (it is okay). I wish the author
had picked just one storyline for this book (either the sunken ship along with
the gem or the cop killer). I do,
though, like how she ended up tying the events together. While both mysteries may seem complicated,
the solution is simple. I was able to
solve the mysteries early in the book.
The clues might as well have been neon arrows pointing to the
perpetrator. While Dead Cold Brew is the
sixteenth book in the series, it is the first book in the series that I have
read (I was hoping to discover a new cozy mystery series). Dead Cold Brew can be read alone (you will be
a little confused in the beginning). The
author provides the needed background details on the main characters. While The Coffeehouse Mystery series is not for me, I do recommend The Haunted Bookshop Mystery series. Cleo Coyle writes the series under the name Alice Kimberly.
- Thank you for visiting. I am reading Little Girl Lost by Carol Wyer. I will be reviewing The Guests on South Battery by Karen White tomorrow. I am going to relax and watch Grimm, MacGyver, and Sleepy Hollow. May all of you have a good night. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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