French Pressed (Coffeehouse Mysteries, No. 6)
by Cleo Coyle
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Book Reviews of French Pressed (Coffeehouse Mysteries, No. 6)
Book Review: Unbeatable!
Summary: 5 Stars
With five murder investigations under her belt, Clare Cosi realizes that it's time to simply kick back, relax, and enjoy running the popular Village Blend, her home away from home. Add in a little romance with a handsome detective and everything is complete. That is until things take a turn for the worse, and Clare is bombarded with one disaster after another - from the return of her ex-husband, Matt, to her daughter's latest romantic crisis. But nothing can beat the one thing Clare was hoping to steer clear of...murder.
In Clare Cosi's world, things revolve around coffee. It's not just something to have with breakfast. It's a taste sensation that can add a little spice to your life no matter what time of day - or night - it is. So when she receives a cup of mud at the elegant Solange, the restaurant where her daughter Joy is an intern, Clare can't contain her displeasure, and has to speak up. But before she even has time to set the coffee situation at Solange straight, one of Joy's fellow interns, turns up dead; followed by the illustrious, celebrated chef he works for. In general, Clare would attempt to stay away from the investigation, but this time she's forced to dive in headfirst, for the police's numero uno suspect is none other than Joy herself. Clare knows her daughter, and is convinced that Joy couldn't hurt a fly, and most definitely didn't kill two of people - both of whom she loved. Unfortunately, the police don't know Joy, and refuse to take Clare's word, preferring to wrap up the case, toss Joy in jail, and throw away the key. Seeing her daughter rot in a New York City prison is the most gut-wrenching thing Clare could have possibly imagined; and, enlisting the help of her ex-husband, and new homicide detective beau, Clare resolves to catch the killer, and spring Joy from the joint. But as Clare digs deeper and deeper into the victim's lives, she begins to realize that not everything is so cut and dry. Both men were keeping secrets that would have caused any number of people to murder them. Now, Clare will have to do her best to catch the appropriate culprit, without losing her head. Otherwise, the next murder on the menu may just be her own.
When I first began reading the Coffeehouse mysteries, I was basically anti-coffee, yet still adored Cleo Coyle's descriptions of the tastes and smells of the perfect brew. Over the years, I have grown into a coffee drinker myself, and find that I only adore the Coffeehouse mysteries more and more with each new installment. Clare is a character you simply can't get enough of. Her intelligence regarding everything from coffee to marital relations makes her come alive; while her descriptions of her adventures - and misadventures - in the kitchen help the reader to develop a kinship with her character. The fact that Coyle is finally tossing Clare into a romantic relationship with someone other than Matt truly works to give the series a jolt; while Madame's ability to wrangle up a slew of new suitors at the snap of a finger provides a few good chuckles throughout the story. I found that FRENCH PRESSED fed much more into the whole "foodie" genre than the previous Coffeehouse installments, but that only made me love it more; and will certainly make the tale more appealing to "foodie" fans. Coyle has done an amazing job with this latest novel - and I'm not just saying that because the recipes sound to-die-for. Unbeatable!
Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer
Book Review: I just don't love Claire
Summary: 2 Stars
"Stabbing flesh was no big deal. That was they way to think about it. The boy was just another piece of meat... From across the dark avenue, the killer stood, expression grim. There were three stories in the redbrick building, six apartments, a roofless porch. The boy was alone on the highest floor. Through the bright windows, the killer watched him pacing. He looked like an animal, like panicked game."
Cleo Coyle's books always start out with so much more promise than they deliver.
Clare Cosi runs the Village Blend, a trendy coffee house in Greenwich Village. She is divorced but partners with her ex-husband, Matt. Their daughter Joy is interning as a chef and becomes a chief suspect in the murders of another intern, Vinny, and Tommy, the married executive chef that Joy has been having an affair with.
I like the NYC locale for this series and they are more gruesome than your usual cozy. Sometimes the mystery is even pretty good. But I have finally figured out why I do not really like this series. I can't stand Clare. She is this supposed together woman that gets involved in all these murders and manages to solve them before the police do. But yet, she can not handle her personal life for anything. She has been divorced from Matt for years, he was a lying, cheating coke user who has gotten clean and works with Clare as the coffee buyer at the Blend. Now she has finally hooked up with the detective from previous books but lets Matt cause friction in her life. He interrupts her with said boyfriend who leaves, declares his love for her, though he is drunk. She stamps her feet and throws her shoes at him (bad,bad writing) to get him to leave the duplex that he is partial owner of, then lets him kiss her because she thinks he will then leave. Please! Total crap. Then murder happens and this will pick up again in the next book. And she goes on to cleverly solve each mystery.
This particular mystery wasn't that great. I'm a bit sick of Clare's family all being the victims of each mystery. Then too many characters and suspects were introduced to make for a convoluted plot. I read that Cleo Coyle is the pen name for the married couple that write these books. Maybe there is one too many writers in the mix. I don't know, but I do know I am just done with this series. It had promise but basically it just gets on my nerves now. I have to be able to like the heroine! That is a must for a cozy mystery at least.
Book Review: Enchanting Review: French Pressed
Summary: 5 Stars
FRENCH PRESSED
CLEO COYLE
Contemporary Mystery
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN# 978-0425220498
288 Pages
$6.99
Paperback--Available Now
Rating: 4.5 Enchantments
Ms. Coyle creates a great mystery read with FRENCH PRESSED, the sixth book in the entertaining `Coffeehouse Mysteries' mystery series featuring barista Clare Cosi. In FRENCH PRESSED, Clare finds herself investigating the murder of Vinny, one of her daughter Joy's friends and fellow intern at the hot NYC restaurant Solange. But when fingers start pointing to Joy herself as the murderer and the bodies begin to pile up, including one killed with Joy's own knife, Clare finds herself going deeper into investigation mode trying to prove her daughter's innocence.
There's so much I enjoyed about this book. Even though I hadn't read the previous books in the series, that didn't matter as it does an excellent job of standing alone. My favorite scene is one from later in the book, when Clare goes to a little Russian restaurant with her employee Esther and her new boyfriend, the hilarious and enjoyable Russian rapper, BB Gun. When they find out why Clare is there, to find information out about the mysterious Nick that was meeting with Chef Keitel, she's sent to a back room to meet with the man, a room which turns out to be a steam room.
Ms. Coyle creates a wonderful, well paced mystery in her sixth book in the series. I loved the vivid descriptions that made you feel like you were right there, having the coffee with Clare and co. as they went about their business. Clare was likeable right from the start and the mystery is one not easily figured out as the clues Clare and her police detective boyfriend uncover seem to point to different people, only to have another suspect appear instead. Fans of this delightful series won't go wrong picking up FRENCH PRESSED.
"Cleo Coyle" is really the husband and wife writing team of Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. They are also "Alice Kimberly", who writes the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries. You can visit them online at: [...]
Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
August 2008
Book Review: The Tastiest Coffeehouse Mystery Yet!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have loved every single Coffeehouse Mystery, and French Pressed, the sixth installment, is no exception. It draws the reader in immediately by starting out from the perspective of a killer - a technique which is highly effective and very chilling - a killer who commits murder before the end of the prologue. Tension continues to mount from here.
Clare Cosi, manager of the Village Blend coffeehouse in Greenwich Village, and Madame Blanche Dreyfus Allegro Dubois (Madame for short), Clare's ex-mother-in-law and owner of the Blend, are enjoying dinner at Solange, the 4-star restaurant in Manhattan where Joy, Clare's only child, just happens to be working as part of her culinary school internship. As Cleo Coyle fans already know, Joy is carrying on an inappropriate relationship with Solange's much older and married Executive Chef, Tommy Keitel, much to her mother's and grandmother's consternation. After dinner, which ends with some extremely bad coffee, Clare visits the kitchen and witnesses one of the chefs physically threatening her daughter - an act that seems even more ominous when Joy later discovers the body of one of her fellow interns.
At the suggestion of Clare's friend, Detective Mike Quinn, Clare comes up with a plan that might gain her entree into Solange's kitchen so she can try to figure out what's going on. Despite Clare and Detective Quinn's best efforts, however, the bodies continue to pile up. Also, in addition to the plot dealing with Solange and Clare's daughter, Detective Quinn encourages Clare's involvement in an investigation of his own.
I have to say that in addition to everything else, I'm VERY pleased with the direction Clare is moving in her personal life. Despite Madame's best efforts, Clare is determined to be responsible for her own happiness. You go, girl!
The ending is especially intriguing, and makes me more than a little anxious to see what will transpire in book seven! Can't wait!
Carol Ann Hopkins 4/28/2008
Book Review: This series continues to be a strong read
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the sixth in Coyle's clever and well-written series featuring Clare Corsi, the manager of the Village Blend coffeehouse in New York City.
Clare runs the coffeehouse along with her ex-husband Matt Allegro, who is often away on long trips buying coffee. Their daughter Joy is a culinary school graduate, now interning at the prestigious Solange. Clare has met Joy's boss, head chef Tommy Keitel, a conceited but talented womanizer many years her senior. Clare is eating at Solange one night, and when she goes to the kitchen to visit Joy, she witnesses Tommy's assistant Brigitte, screaming at the staff. She rescues Joy from a knife-wielding Brigitte, who then disappears, running out the door.
Later Joy checks on sick co-worker Vinny, who she finds stabbed to death in his apartment. There are plenty of possible suspects, but the police like Joy for the murder. They let her go, but Clare swears to investigate on her own and goes to Solange to pitch her own superior coffee blends as a way to hang around and question the staff.
Clare had been shocked to discover that Tommy and Joy are having an affair, and she has been trying to talk some sense into her daughter, but to no avail. Tommy vows to break up with Joy, and Clare is appeased, but he dumps her in a very nasty way. Joy flees in tears to her grandmother's apartment. Late that night she returns to Solange to get her knives, and when Clare hears where she is going, she dashes there as well. Clare arrives just in time to hear Joy's scream when she discovers a second body with a knife in the neck, just like Vinny. Now the cops arrest Joy, and won't listen to Clare's list of possible other suspects, starting with Brigitte, the crazy drug-addled chef fired the day before. Clare decides to investigate since the police aren't-and Clare enlists her boyfriend Mike Quinn, a police detective.
Clare and Mike make a great team, in more ways than one.
Armchair Interviews says: Another great addition to this series.