Book Review: Holiday Grind

Holiday Grind
A Coffee House Mystery
By: Cleo Coyle
Published by: Berkley Prime Crime Hardcover
Published on: November 4, 2009
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0-425-23005-3

Holiday Grind opens at the Village Blend with everyone preparing for the Christmas season. The Blend is a landmark coffee house in the West Village of Manhattan. It is owned by Clare's, ex-mother-in-law known affectionately as Madame. Clare and Madame's son Matteo divorced several years back but Madame has never given up hope that they would one day find each other again. In an effort, to help make this happen, Madame enticed Clare back to New York by deeding the coffee house to Clare and Matteo jointly, making them partners, once again. Clare can live with that because she is doing what she loves best, managing the coffee house and constantly working on new flavors of coffees to offer her customers. That is what we find Clare doing as we join her and her Baristas (trained espresso bartenders) at the Blend. Clare has organized a party to try and discover the Taste of Christmas. She is tired of the same Christmas flavors year after year and is looking to spruce up the holiday with a few new flavors of coffee.

Clare is disappointed when no one at the party is in the spirit of Christmas. It is still 3 weeks until Christmas and everyone is tired of the same old holiday grind. Clare decides what this group needs is Santa Claus, but Santa is late. Alfred Glockner, who is one of the traveling Santas around town and father to one of Clare's previous Baristas, is a regular at the Blend. He is always dropping in the Blend to say hello and cheer up the customers. Clare always gives him a free cup of coffee in appreciation of all the work he is doing to raise money for the homeless. Clare, thinking maybe Alf has forgotten her invitation to the tasting party, decides to go out and find him. Matt, her ex-husband, tells her that he saw Alf going into one of the other businesses as he was headed to the Blend. Clare thinking that the West Village being a small neighborhood should make it easy to find a traveling Santa, heads out into the cold, snowy night and straight into murder and mystery.

In Cleo's creation of the Coffee House Mysteries, you will find all the elements you love about a cozy/amateur sleuth mystery. All the mystery and suspense is there without having to wade through the blood, sex and profanity. Cleo throws in just enough red herrings to keep you guessing who the murderer is until the end of the book. Cleo continues in the same true form as her previous seven books in the series. Coyle's followers will not be disappointed. If you are a first time reader of the Coffee House Mysteries you should not have a problem getting into the story of Holiday Grind. Though the main characters of each story remain the same, each book offers up a new mystery for our amateur sleuth, Clare Cosi, to solve.

Holiday Grind continues to give us that cozy feeling. We have our village coffee house where the regulars drop in for the daily cup of java and to catch up with friends and acquaintances. It reminds me of the pub in the 80's TV show Cheers and their theme song. In the song it talks about getting away to a place where everyone knows your name and they are all glad that you came, but Coyle adds a little spice to our place with coffee house manager/amateur sleuth, Clare Cosi. Then we also have Clare's lovable but nosy ex-mother-in-law, whose place in New York society helps Clare get her information on the big dogs. Clare's employees are always willing to lend her a helping hand in her sleuthing and sometimes even ask for her help, instead of the local police to solve a mystery of their own. Of course, our sleuth has to have some connection with the local authorities or who in the police department would even listen to her. This is where Mike Quinn, NYPD detective and Clare's new boyfriend fits into the picture.

Coyle sets the stage and develops each character as the story progresses. Her way of describing the characters' personalities, behaviors and reactions make the reader feel like they are there seeing it for themselves. I, do, think this mystery is a little more intricate than in her previous books. The tie-in of Clare's case with that of a case Mike is working on made me have to go back and re-read some of the parts to be sure that I understood the connection. The reader must also read closely because at the same time that all this murder and mayhem is evolving, we, also, have to try to figure out if there might be something that Mike Quinn is keeping from Clare. So, even though this book is what we consider a cozy/amateur sleuth mystery and a "fun" read, it does require the reader to do some thinking. I have to ask, though, what good is a mystery if it hands you all the answers on a silver platter. A good mystery engages the mind and challenges the reader to find the answers before it is revealed. Holiday Grind does just that very thing.

Cleo Coyle is the pseudonym for the husband and wife writing team of Marc Cerasini and Alice Alfonsi. Together, they create the Coffee House Mystery Series. They, also, co-create the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries under the pseudonym of Alice Kimberly. For more information on these two mystery series go to Cleo's website at www.coffeehousemystery.com .

Sources: www.lyricsondemand.com,
www.cozy-mystery.com