| Title | : | Murder Most Frothy (Coffeehouse Mystery, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0425211134 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780425211137 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 247 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
Murder Most Frothy (Coffeehouse Mystery, #4) Reviews
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Written by married co-authors, the Coffeehouse Mysteries are some of my favorite cozies. Set in a popular coffee house in NYC, the stories always have a sweet mix of coffee, life in New York and murder. I've read most of the books in this series before, but decided it was time to start all over at the beginning and read them again. :)
Murder Most Frothy is the 4th book in the series. Clare Cosi is spending some time away from Village Blend in the city. She's staying at a posh Hamptons mansion to help her friend, David Mintzer serve coffee at his summer galas. The July 4th party ends with a bang when Clare discovers a barista dead in Mintzer's private bathroom. Nobody heard the gunshots over the fireworks. Clare thinks someone is gunning for Mintzer and shot the wrong person. She's determined to protect her friend and discover the killer.
I listened to the audio book version of this story. Narrator Rebecca Gibel did a great job reading and providing voices to all the characters. At about 7.5 hours, the audio book from Blackstone Audio was an enjoyable listen. I have partial hearing loss and sometimes female voices are hard for me to hear properly. But I was easily able to hear and enjoy this entire book. :)
I love Clare as a main character. She's intelligent, feisty and a great business manager. Her situation is really unique....Village Blend is owned by her former mother in law and she will someday co-own the business with her ex-husband. She lives above the coffee shop in a posh furnished apartment, which she often shares with her ex when he's in town. They get along....with only a few moments of snark here and there. It all works out....Village Blend is a thriving business....even with a murder here and there thrown in to distract Clare.
The Coffeehouse Mystery series has 17 books, with an 18th book -- Brewed Awakenings -- coming out in 2019. Alice Alfonsi and her husband Marc Cerasini, using the pen name Cleo Coyle, also write the Haunted Bookshop series, another of my favorites. -
Okay. I like coffee. I like mysteries, and I don't expect them to be great works of literature except in exceptional circumstances. I like the main character of this series, and the plot was okay. BUT.
I DO expect someone to have edited these books before they're published. Even the mass-market paperbacks. Even the cozy mysteries. ESPECIALLY the books of a "national bestselling author" being published by a division of Penguin Publishing. PLEASE, please put 0.00001% of your profits toward hiring someone like me to read your books before you publish them.
Why? Well... I've gathered a few examples.
Page 4 (which is the FIRST PAGE of CHAPTER ONE): "sterling-sliver serving trays overflowed with flutes of obscenely expensive champagne"
Page 9: "Out here, sterling sliver serving trays . . . overflowed with seemingly endless rounds of seafood canapes"
Gotta love how the "sliver" is consistent but the hyphenation is not. Also, apparently trays overflow. That's just what they do. Every time.
But seriously, Cleo, put "sliver" on your list of Ctrl-F's to check before publication. I do it with "pubic" and "trail" when I write legal briefs, because hey, spellcheck doesn't know that I meant "public" and "trial," but I do. And, importantly, I WOULD BE EMBARRASSED if I accidentally argued that a trail for my client would be against pubic interest. YOU ALSO SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED to have sliver serving trays in your book -- twice!
Page 17: "I believe he's been shirking work every since!"
I shirk work every since I get, too.
Page 68: "Millions of dollars and thousands of employees livelihoods are at stake."
I know it's just a missing apostrophe, but still. There's also a reference to some "ex-Masaad" agents on the same page... I think she meant "ex-Mossad," since that's how it was spelled earlier in the book. Even spellcheck should have caught that one, no?
Page 140: "I invited David here tonight . . . to wheedle an invitation to sample his dessert parings for myself."
No, David does not serve apple peels and potato skins for dessert.
Page 241 (during the big "I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" speech): "Jim snorted. 'You give me undo credit, pal.'"
Gah. I actually snorted myself, in disbelief. Pal. -
“There comes an age in life when you realize that blaming and regretting are a waste of precious time.”
Clare and daughter are taken out of their infamous coffeeshop so they can stay in a luxurious Hamptons mansion for work purposes. David Mintzer, who was introduced in Latte Trouble, has hired them to make his new baristas the best when it comes to his newly opened restaurant. Of course Clare runs into a murder, right in the mansion she's staying in, and has to solve the crime for peace of mind.
This isn't a series that keeps Clare faithful and hooked to just one interest, but it worked for this particular story since I liked the newcomer. There's some inner side drama with Clare suspecting an employee of sabotaging David, and also her daughter's struggles with staying pure and avoiding getting into trouble again. The ex Matteo makes a few appearances, which are mainly amusing, and of course Madama mother-in-law is around the help cater the business. She's good company since she's decided she has a nose for crimesolving.
Light and entertaining, these books serve up ample fun while delivering a few coffee-making tips. The end of each book is filled with creative, generous recipes all coffee themed. I'm going to eventually try most of them out. The espresso brownies I dared for fourth of July turned out excellent. -
I really liked this fourth installment in the Coffeehouse Mystery series. Well written characters, great story line (who is trying to bump off David), and fun locations. We spend time in the Hampdens where the rich are getting down and dirty.
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It was okay. Clare is really starting to annoy me, I know that she has to get involved in order for there to be a mystery for us to read about, but she does it in the most annoying way possible - blundering around, going off "investigating" by herself when no one knows where she is, spreading false accusations to all and sundry, getting mad when the police have the audacity to suggest she might be acting unlawfully - I like the mysteries and the coffee talk, but Clare is definitely rubbing me up the wrong way.
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I'm done with the series. The mysteries are pretty entertaining, but Clare's repetitive fights with her daughter, Joy, over everything, and Madame (who the f*ck calls themselves Madame?!) constantly pretending that Clare is still married to her son drove me nuts. These books are a 50/50 ratio of mystery to obnoxious familial relationships. Seems to me that should be more like 90/10.
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Wherever Claire Cosi goes, coffee is riotously popular, and so in this alternate reality, she takes on a summer job as a coffee manager for a billionaire at his mansion in the Hamptons. Despite her living rent-free in a vintage Manhattan apartment, and having spent more than a decade of her life receiving alimony and child support from the son of a billionaire heiress (everybody’s a billionaire in these books), and making a very good living running one of the most popular uppity-up coffee shops in Manhattan (while presumably still cashing royalty checks from her earlier career as an author), Claire spends most of this book whining about rich people. That gets boring fast.
Almost as boring as the rest of the plot. This is the fourth book in the series, and the fourth false-start murder, where she spends (I say “she,” meaning the narrator, not “they,” meaning the talent-free authors) page after page introducing you to and making you like a person, and then leading you to believe that person has been murdered, only to turn around and reveal that some stranger or annoying person has been killed instead.
Claire immediately concludes that because a waiter hanging out in the private bathroom of the billionaire’s house has been shot by a sniper, that said billionaire’s life is in danger, and she is clearly the most qualified person in the county to handle the situation. While the police take longer to arrive than a delivery pizza, she performs the roles of crowd control and head detective, finding both bullet casings and footprints. The local police obviously arrest her under extremely suspicious circumstances and she spends the rest of the book answering awkward questions while they rout out the actual murderer.
Oh, wait, no, that’s what would happen in ANY OTHER REMOTELY REALISTIC BOOK! Ha, ha, — no. Claire Cosi becomes an unofficial head detective and guides the local cops through the investigation with their total acceptance. She offers them no credentials and they ask for none but nod sagely at her advice and accept all the evidence she proffers them, and while the sheriff gets a little annoyed when she keeps investigating, nothing serious is done to discourage it. When she calls up Quinn halfway through, he doesn’t tell her to back off the investigation, either, he provides helpful tips as though realizing that years of training and police academy background are all incidental to one’s ability to solve crimes and offer substantial protection to a member of the public whose life is in danger.
So off Claire goes on her rambling investigation until she finds a likely suspect she can sleep with. True story. This is book number 4, and the third time she’s banged a dude she thinks is her strongest suspect. Seriously, what is wrong with this ho?
Most of the book is taken up with repetitive or unnecessary or unnecessarily repetitive exposition, description, and recap — including more people’s backstories than an entire season of Lost. Not only does every random waiter, housekeeper, and taxi driver get a thorough exposition of their lives up to this point, they also have an appropriately ethnic name and stereotypical appearance (such as the waitress named Colleen O’Something whose first paragraph contains a description of her red curly hair, freckles, and an exclamation of dialogue including the word “banshee”). And the end was so unremarkable, with such a dismal attempt at a plot twist, that when a friend asked me to identify the killer not even 15 minutes after I finished reading the book, I couldn’t remember.
I’m afraid even my riffing was almost unable to get me through this book, and I threw it down more than once. -
It's like... I don't always love it and find parts of it annoying, but she always ends so well!! And then I have to read the next one....
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Digital audio read by Rebecca Gibel.
Book four in the Coffeehouse Mystery series. Clare Cosi has accepted her millionaire friend David’s offer of an all-expenses-paid summer away from the city. At his Hamptons mansion, she’ll be able to relax while training the staff of his new restaurant. But their first event is marred when one of her employees turns up dead in David’s bathroom. Thanks to the Fourth of July fireworks, no one heard the gunshot, and the police are stuck in holiday traffic, so Clare begins to investigate.
I really like this series. The principal characters are well developed, and I really like the relationship between Clare, her ex-husband and their daughter. Madame (Clare’s mother-in-law) is a hoot and really gets involved in this case. A little excursion outside Manhattan also allows Coyle to introduce a new potential love interest. I’d certainly like to see Jim back in the picture in future episodes. Now, please excuse me while I go get a mocha frappe!
Rebecca Gibel does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I love the way she voices Madame! -
I listened to this audiobook over a few days during vacation and on the plane. I have also listened to the first two so I knew what to expect. I wanted a light hearted cozy read to get me through some down time.
I had hoped to see that the main character, Claire, would evolve through the series but sadly that hasn't happened. The story itself was interesting, a murder at a mansion in the Hamptons with lots of suspicious characters. However our heroine doesn't seem to learn anything from her mistakes and keeps getting herself in the most ridiculous of situations instead of using more of her reasoning than her physical sleuthing. She also seems to have a superwoman's strength at times to get out of some of her physical mishaps.
Her romantic exploits are also growing tiresome. In her 40's she's getting a little old for summer flings, etc, while trying to convince her 21 year old daughter not to do the same.
I don't think I'll continue with these since it appears that they will remain pretty much the same. -
Clare Cosi is in the Hamptons for the summer, along with her daughter and mother-in-law, and they are all staying with David Mintzer, a wealthy businessman with a new coffee house they are helping him improve over the summer. On July 4th, a barista is murdered during David's July 4th party while David is resting due to a bad migraine. Clare starts to investigate and it doesn't take long before it is obvious that there are several suspects and, naturally, she is convinced that David was the actual target.
A fun, light read. -
Another great mystery
This was a fun one in the series. I liked the change in setting to the Hamptons in this one. I enjoyed the new characters too. Clare’s investigating was top notch as always. -
I don't usually read this kind of book. An adult "cozy" mystery where the character is older than me and sort of investigates a murder by accident. I did end up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. The main character Clare runs a coffeehouse and is constantly making these blends that sound amazing. I wish I knew all about coffee and how to make it completely from scratch like that. She is pretty smart and sensible and is on somewhat good terms with her ex husband even after how terribly he treated her, which is some pretty good self restraint. The plot was kind of fun to follow, although who was behind the killings was pretty apparent I thought. I liked the friends Clare made and there was a dash of romance at the end.
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Fourth in the Coffeeshop Mystery series revolving around the manager of the Village Blend, an independent coffeeshop in Greenwich Village, New York.
My Take
If you want to understand coffee as one would appreciate wine, this is the series for you as Coyle goes into great detail about the roasts, the blends, and the pairings of food with the different kinds of coffee beans. What to take into account, how to prepare the ideal cup of coffee or espresso.
I do enjoy the battles between mother and daughter. Mom doesn't want Joy making the same mistakes she or her father made. At the same time, Mom doesn't realize just how similar Joy is in temperament to herself. Clare is also deluding herself — or is she being hypocritical? — about her own reasons for detecting. What she condemns in others are the same actions she takes. Something her new love interest points out.
For those of you interested in architecture, Coyle knocks on those wealthy owners who want "old" new houses; who are afraid to take a chance on something interesting. One of Coyle's characters describes Robert Motherwell's Quonset hut house. A tiny bit of reminiscence about Pollack and the Hamptons as an artists' colony in its early days as well. I did love Coyle's description of the redesign of the Cuppa J as well as her mentions of other renowned restaurants. It pulled up yummy memories of Chez Panisse and this lovely restaurant up in Lakeport, California…
Okay, this is just weird. Coyle tells of the Bagisu tribesmen who use donkeys to transport their cherries as though this is some new, unique idea. Interesting point Coyle makes about the movers and shakers of New York who vacation in the Hamptons — and are unable to leave their aggressive personalities behind.
Sometimes I really wonder about Clare. She's quick to jump on some obvious possibilities and just as quick to ignore other just as likely ones. Naive. Just as she's quick to condemn Madame about Edward, but jump on Joy for condemning Madame.
Okay, I'm impressed. I fully expected Clare to back out on her deal and she didn't.
The Story
Clare and David have made an arrangement in which Clare "trains and oversees his barista staff" at David's Hamptons-based restaurant in exchange for a salary and staying in his guesthouse — a ploy to allow Joy to work in the Hamptons for the summer, but under her mother's watchful eye.
The action begins with a Fourth of July party at David's Hamptons house when an unintended target is murdered. Naturally, Clare and Madame can't resist becoming involved much to the local police department's dismay for they believe the victim was the target. Clare believes that David is the one threatened.
A threat David does not believe even as Clare uncovers enemy after enemy.
Slowly the evidence mounts. The celebrity photos. David's almost-death from his allergic reaction. The laced cocaine. A shooting champion. The routine of a former SEAL.
The Characters
Clare Cosi and Matteo Allegro are divorced, but Madame Blanche Dreyfus Allegro Dubois, the owner of the Village Blend, the family's historic coffeehouse in the Village, is determined to reunite them. Joy is their 19-year-old daughter enjoying a summer break from culinary school in New York.
Clare is relying upon Tucker Burton, their gay head barista, to hold down the fort at the Village Blend while she works in the Hamptons.
The Cuppa J is…
…David's restaurant in the Hamptons. David Mintzer is a major investor in Village Blend. The waitstaff at tje restaurant and the Fourth of July party includes Graydon Faas, Treat Mazzelli, Suzi Tuttle, and Colleen O'Brien. Victor Vogel is the Cuppa J chef and Jacques Papas is the manager. Alberta Gurt is David's housekeeper.
Marjorie Bright hates David for the mature trees he's had planted around his house. Edward Myers Wilson is an artist and professor with whom Madame is *ahem* making time in the Hamptons. Bom Felloes is a chain restaurant chef with a grudge against David. Breanne Summour still seems to be maintaining her place in the series; she's seeing Matteo and jealous of Clare. And Clare is so enjoying rubbing it in to Matteo! Jim Rand is a former SEAL now making a living shooting photographs of celebrities. His partners in the photography business is a fellow ex-soldier, Kenny Darnell. About to be a former friend, too.
Sergeant Roy O'Rourke is in charge of the investigation — he obviously has no experience with Clare's detecting abilities, hmmphf. Detective Melchior is part of the team.
Detective Mike Quinn has been attracted to Clare from the beginning, but has some marital issues to resolve. Officers Langley and Demetrios don't appear this time.
The Cover and Title
The cover is all scratched up in shades of blue as we attend a bullet-ridden party on someone's patio. That cherry is certainly surprised as the bullet whips through the mounded whipped cream!
The title is those summer coffee drinks Clare whips up, that turns into Murder Most Frothy. -
These books are like a poor soap opera - filled with cliché and phoney descriptions of "exciting" wealthy New Yorkers' lives, in "Murder, She Wrote" style mysteries, with some banal romance thrown in. The author actually has people "blurting" and "quipping" in rounds of boring dialogue. The plots aren't very inventive and the characters are shallow to say the least. Cloying little novels. I believe I've had my fill, and more.
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I am enjoying this series.
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Murder Most Frothy Earns 5/5 8-layer Treats...Engaging, Top Notch!
There’s been a bit of time between the last book I read in Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery series and this one, so I am excited to rejoin Clare Cosi along with her family at a Fourth of July celebration in the Hamptons. Coyle’s sensory-filled descriptions of the exclusive habitat of the rich and famous, the breeze off the sea, and little hamlets that host a myriad of visitors, is punctuated by the crack of a sniper’s rifle and a dead man in the upstairs bathroom. The victim, David Mintzer, is a well known, wealthy businessman, and a regular at Village Blend, Clare’s Greenwich Village coffeehouse. He made Clare an offer she couldn’t refuse: in exchange for overseeing the staff at his Cuppa J coffeehouse, she would be able to stay at his oceanfront estate for the summer. Who would say no to that?! She might have had second thoughts had she’d known murder would be included.
I chose to enjoy Cleo Coyle’s fourth book in her Coffeehouse Mystery series by listening to the audio version with Rebecca Gible brilliant and very entertaining narration. The drama was clever, twisty, not immediately resolved with a satisfying conclusion, and Gible’s voice artistry greatly enriched this engaging page-turner (Can you call it that if it’s an audiobook?). With a very pleasant first-person narrative along with delightful changes in tone to portray variations in speech and emotions along with a good effort at age and gender, it was well worth foregoing chores and enjoying the entertainment! Cozy fans, you gotta “hear” this one! -
Clare Cosi is asked to help millionaire David Mintzer set up his new restaurant in the Hamptons. She takes a break from her New York City coffeehouse, grabs her daughter and her ex-mother-in-law and heads to the Hamptons for a little bit of a summer vacation mixed in with a little bit of work.
At David’s 4th of July gala, Clare is running the coffee bar but things take a deadly turn. An employee is murdered and Clare is convinced David is the real target. No one heard or saw anything, thanks to the fireworks in the background. David doesn’t think he’s in any danger, but Clare isn’t so sure and is determined to protect her new friend.
This is the fourth book in the series. It’s been awhile since I read the third book. I was so happy to find that these are on audio so I can listen during my commute to work. It made for a great diversion in the middle of traffic.
As always, Clare is a wonderful, strong main character. I adore her and it was nice to see her out of her usual New York City territory. It was also fun to have appearances by her ex-husband, ex-mother-in-law and, of course, her daughter. The mystery took a few twists and turns along the way and perfect for mystery lovers. Can’t wait to listen to the next one. -
I'm not as impressed by this one as I have been by Coyle's other novels in this series. Perhaps it was the setting- I have no interest in celebrities, how they spend their ridiculously rich summers, or the Hamptons. Since it's a world I'm not familiar with, I really couldn't get into the story at all. The killer wasn't obvious, so there's that. Joy and Matteo become more annoying with each passing novel, so there's that from the other side as well. All in all, a rather forgettable installment in the series. I hope Clair goes back to the Village Blend in the next book- I find that setting much more appealing. I'll definitely read the next one, though. I haven't given up on you yet, Coyle!
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I'm giving this two stars because there was some good relational developments but I'm really irritated with our main character Claire. She loves to solve mysteries but there are times when she is incredibly obtuse with no apparent reason. I had several moments in this book and the previous one where I had to stop because she was being incredibly stupid. If I'm to believe she can solve a mystery she has to have some basic intelligence. Is our author just trying to fill pages? I'm walking away from this series now, my irritation out ways any positives at this point
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SO MUCH BETTER THAN BOOK 3!!!!!
PREMISE: Claire has taken a job in the hamptons for the 4th of July. Eveything's going well till she goes to look for her boss and finds someone else in his bathroom...dead! But why was he killed? It couldn't be because from afar he looks a lot like her boss could it? With the amazing persuasion of Madam, Claire sets about trying to uncover who the killer is before her actual boss is murdered himself.
THOUGHTS: Ok so the reveal let me down (hence the minus .5 Stars), but otherwise this was sooooooooooooooooooo much better than book 3! The mystery was so intriguing from start to end I was on the edge of my seat! Well done Cleo Coyle!!!
4.5 Stars!
xoxo. -
A cute enough cozy mystery about a barista, an ex-SEAL, not-Gordon-Ramsey, and a lot of cocaine.
Casual racism and homophobia keep it from being any higher and continually reminded me that 14 years is a long time in publishing. -
This was a fine installation in the series. I enjoyed the plot, the characters, and (of course) the coffee references/description. I did feel that the final reveal was a little lackluster, but fully enjoyed my time reading regardless.
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Joy became a spoiled brat.
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I enjoyed my first book in this long series, but as a lover of all things murder and mystery this is very soft in action and mild in complexity of plot...I do like Claire most scenes lol other scenes she works my last nerve....LOVE LOVE how much I've learned about the world of ☕ coffee lol #iaudibledthis
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This is the fourth in this series and while I love the coffee concoctions Clare comes up with and the yummy recipes in the back of the books, this one may have been stretching it a bit.
Clare is a smart woman, but in this book she comes off as not so bright. And it seemed the coffee information was just thrown in as filler.
So not my favorite one. -
The coffee house murder mystery’s are entertaining, enjoyable and fun to read.
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An okay, light audiobook to listen to while I cleaned the house.
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Don't really care for the motherinlaw like they broke up, get over it. but other than that I wish I could find more of this series to read! Even if I cant read this series unless im able to have coffee lmao
