Cleo Coyle Murder Most Frothy

Murder Most Frothy

Cleo Coyle

Berkley, Aug 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0425211134

Multi-millionaire David Mintzer "hires" Clare Cosi, manger of the historic Village Blend coffeehouse, to train the staff at his new Long Island restaurant. In return, Clare will spend the summer at his Ottium Dignitate mansion in the Hamptons with all her expenses covered. A no brainer, she leaves hotter than a matchstick Manhattan for East Hampton accompanied by her daughter Joy and her former mother-in-law, Madame.

At David's first bash of the season, a Fourth of July gala, Clare works the coffee bar where she whips up her special iced choco latte. Clare goes to find David, but instead sees a corpse whom she initially thought was her employer; the victim is employee Treat Mazzelli who easily could be mistaken for his boss because both have similar short body types. While the local police are arriving, Clare does a bit of snooping as her theory is the culprit targeted David.

The latest Coffeehouse Mystery (see Oon What Grounds, Through The Grinder, and Latte Trouble) is a terrific amateur sleuth tale that showcases the heroine at her best. This time, unlike her previous brews in which the coffee gourmand knows that NYPD Detective Mike Quinn has so much more experience with homicide than her; Clare assumes she is the veteran vs. the local cops who she believes do drunks. Still they treat her like an idiot, which only propels Clare to uncover the killer's identity before she makes her next latte.

Harriet Klausner