DEAD COLD BREW – Cleo Coyle | Looking For a Good Book

I had gotten on the band wagon for a different mystery series that revolved around coffee and I thought it only fair to check out this series, which has clearly been around for a lot longer as this book, Dead Cold Brew, is the sixteenth in the series.

Clare Cosi is the owner of a hip New York coffeehouse. Clare’s boyfriend, Mike, is a New York police detective. Right now that’s disconcerting because someone is shooting at NYPD officers. But the police have an eye-witness at the first shooting – Clare. But when Clare gives the sketch artist her description, things don’t go too well. Clare describes a popular comic book superhero, complete with cape. Clare’s description makes a laughing-stock of the PD, so she’s determined to get to the bottom of this by herself.

But not all is going wrong. Clare’s boyfriend, Mike, finally proposes to her and her employer promises a coffee-colored diamond for the wedding ring. But the ring’s designer is found killed and an attorney appears with a strange letter promising a hidden treasure to Clare’s daughter (from a first marriage). Clare has to come up with a special blend for a brew to be served on a cruise ship that is a rebuild of the Andrea Doria. Is it wise to remake a ship that was part of one of the most famous maritime disasters in American history?

One of the things that really surprised me about this book is how involved the story was. This was not a simple story with a character moving from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ with an obstacle or two in the way. This was a story that changed, evolved, and wound its way around the central characters. There are two or three different stories going on here, which is quite a task to control given that the story is told in the first person from Clare’s point of view.

I enjoyed the history that worked its way into this story. When the idea of the Andrea Doria was first brought up I know that I rolled my eyes, anticipating a rather cheesy connection, but author Cleo Coyle works this angle in quite well.

I haven’t been a fan of a lot of ‘cozy’ mysteries, typically finding them to be much to ‘simple’ and lacking some bite, but Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery series (based on this, volume 16) shows that a cozy can be an engaging, exciting, and even educational read. I look forward to checking out more from this series.

Looking for a good book? Dead Cold Brew, by Cleo Coyle, is a cozy mystery that steps up to deliver an engaging mystery with a coffee-theme.