Publisher: Berkley
Published: August
5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0425255513
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: Print
Obtained via: Publisher
THREE HEARTS
Claire Cosi knows her coffee. Inside out, upside down and backwards,
you name the drink and she’s got it down. For the past few weeks a customer her
staff calls the Quiz Man has been coming into her Village Blend coffee house
and challenging them to describe a variety of coffee drinks. Clare has finally
had it and she steps up to take on the Quiz Master herself. The quiz master
identifies himself as billionaire Eric Thorner and before he can run through
his list of beverages and make an intriguing sales pitch to Claire, his waiting
limo blows up—right in front of the Blend.
Claire moves quickly to secure her coffee house and ultimately
saves Eric’s life. In return, Eric gifts Claire with a number of her wishes, including
the chance to sit down with her daughter, Joy, to talk about Joy’s relationship
with police detective Manny Franco—in Paris.
There are, however, two people not so pleased with Claire’s new
friend. Ex-husband, Matt Allegro and her
current squeeze, Lt. Mike Quinn. Even
though he’s married to someone else, Matt still hasn’t given up on Claire. Mike has been sort of MIA for several months…she
knows where he is—she just can’t reach him all that readily. It takes two people to make a long distance
relationship work. Claire hasn’t minded commuting back and forth on weekends,
but something is up with Mike and she’s not liking it. When she stumbles on
some key evidence regarding the car bombing Mike steps in to help, but Claire
is still basically on her own. Can Claire find the bomber before her life
really explodes around her?
I was initially drawn into Cleo Coyle’s coffeehouse mysteries because
I am a devoted coffee drinker. I stayed for the mysteries and situations Claire
finds herself in. She’s smart and savvy
about the ways of the world with just a smidge of innocence that makes her
someone you want to sit down and have a chat with.
The past few books seem to have lost something. First there was the badly done love triangle
between Claire, Mike Quinn the detective and his cousin, also named Mike
Quinn. Matt’s attempts to win her back were
actually kind of fun. I read cozies for the mysteries, not for romance. When
the author(s) moved Mike down to Washington, D.C. to work with the feds some of
the wonderful character dynamics seem to have been lost. Mike’s anger in this
one was a turn off. If Coyle is planning to go somewhere with this I hope he
gets there soon and then returns to the solid character he was.
The blurb was also misleading—saying Claire is jetting around
the world with Eric when, in fact, it takes place in maybe 30 pages of the 350
page book.
The story behind the mystery was a good one and I didn’t see the
killer coming.
Each book in the series is a standalone and Coyle gives just
enough back story to make it interesting without repeating a lot of information
the reader doesn’t need to know. The
books do not have to be read in order…but you don’t want to miss any of them.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
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