coffee shop kismet
Master coffee roaster Clare Cosi is co-owner of the Village Blend coffee shop in Greenwich Village in New York City. It’s been a popular place for many decades, especially with the coffee blends they provide. Clare’s partner in the shop is her ex-husband, who travels around the world to source the coffee beans, which she then roasts to perfection. They provide coffee beans to local restaurants, which is a profitable part of the business. But since the coffee shop was closed for a while to film a show, it’s struggling. They’re just not getting the foot traffic that they did before.
Clare knows that her team can turn things around, if they just come up with a new idea. She starts by redecorating the second floor room, switching out the art and adding a sign she found in the attic that says Writer’s Block Lounge. Clare knew that many years ago, that room had been used by writers and artists, where they could work in peace and drink coffee and bounce ideas off each other when they needed help. But one of their regulars doesn’t take well to the changes and has an anxiety attack in the store. The customer, Mr. Scrib, was a store favorite, and he comes back later that night. Clare catches him going through the dumpster out back, and that’s where he gets attacked.
Barista Esther takes charge of his notebook as well as his pet duck while he’s in the hospital, and she wants to find out who would attack him in the back alley. But while all the baristas are talking to their artist friends about the new Writer’s Block Lounge, Clare is finding out why the lounge stopped all those years ago. It had formed organically, as artists came together and became friends. But it ended abruptly when one of them, an actor, was found dead. His murder had never been solved, and Clare can’t help but wonder if his death had something to do with Mr. Scrib’s attack, especially when she and Esther find out that he’s in the process of writing a true crime book about an unsolved murder.
As Clare tries to find out what happened to the actor all those years ago, there is another murder, up in the new Writer’s Block Lounge. Could it be related to the old murder? Clare needs to figure it out quickly, because if the coffee shop loses more business, they may be forced to sell the shop to a competitor.
No Roast for the Weary is book 21 in Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery. The mystery in this one is complicated, a little twisted, running back through decades to uncover secrets from the past. Between the cold case murder and the newer crimes, the concerns about the business and competitors breathing down their necks, there is a lot going on in this story. And once you read to the end of the mystery, there are a handful of recipes for the tasty treats described throughout the book.
I enjoyed No Roast for the Weary. The twists in the story kept me guessing until the end. It’s well written, with strong characters and an interesting story line. This has been one of my favorite Coffeehouse Mysteries so far.
Egalleys for No Roast for the Weary were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
