• Decaffeinated Corpse

  • A Coffeehouse Mystery, Book 5
  • By: Cleo Coyle
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
  • Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,541 ratings)

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Decaffeinated Corpse  By  cover art

Decaffeinated Corpse

By: Cleo Coyle
Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
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Publisher's summary

At the Village Blend, Clare Cosi's best baristas may refer to a decaffeinated espresso as a "why bother?" but Clare knows a good percentage of her customers prefer the neutered brew. So when an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world's first botanically decaffeinated coffee bean and smuggles it into the country, Clare believes it's a business opportunity she needs to investigate... at least until the first dead body shows up.

With casualties piling up and a complicated blend of old and new loves muddying the waters, it's up to Clare to find the murderer before one of her near and dears takes the fall. Otherwise, her latest addition to the menu will prove to be a real buzz killer….

©2007 The Berkley Publishing Group (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd.

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What listeners say about Decaffeinated Corpse

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

This is becoming a great cozy mystery series!

I have to say that the author is really coming into her own. Still a few weird things that I couldn't understand why she did, but it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the book.. except I kept wanting it to be explained!

The mystery was excellent. I didn't figure it out until the author wanted me to do so. I enjoyed the characters much more and thoroughly laughed and smiled when Madame and Clare start investigating together.

You can tell the author is very proud of her New York areas. The descriptions get a little long winded, but doesn't really detract from the story.

The narrator makes this book!

This series is becoming really fun.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Mix of Mystery, Coffee History, and Prep

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Recommended to anyone that likes or loves coffee. Love the mix of coffee history and coffee preparation methods and secrets.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Constantly wondering what was going to happen next. Many twists and turns and never quite clear how things might or even could end.

What about Rebecca Gibel’s performance did you like?

Excellent voices that helped identify characters and build suspense. Ms Gibel made you relate directly with the characters and I found myself wanting to talk out loud to the characters to warn them about what might happen next.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, definitely! Very hard to pause for even a moment. Didn't even watch the news on TV until the book was finished.

Any additional comments?

Love the series and can't wait until the rest of the books in the series are recorded. Will be on the lookout for more from the author and also more from the narrator.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

DECAFFINATED WARS

Would you consider the audio edition of Decaffeinated Corpse to be better than the print version?

EXPRESSION, IN MY OPINON, IS WHAT CAN MAKE OR BREAK A BOOK. REBECCA HAD TO COVER QUITE A FEW VOICES, FROM THE VERY OLD, HAUTY, AND TEENAGE, MANY MENS VOICES AND SHE COVERED THEM ALL WITHOUT SKIPPING ABIT. THAT IS VERY HARD TO DO AS I TOOK EXPRESSION LESSONS WHILE GROWING UP AND HAD TO MEMORIZE WHOLE PLAYS, I WAS VERY NERVOUS BUT I LEARNED HOW TO USE YOUR VOICE AND LUNGS TO MAKE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS COME ALIVE. NO BIG BREATHS INBETWEEN THE CHANGE AS MANY NARRATORS DO. SO SHE IS A SURE 5 IN MY BOOK.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Decaffeinated Corpse?

THE HALLOWEEN PARTY.

What about Rebecca Gibel’s performance did you like?

THE EXCELLENT WAY SHE MADE A STORY ABOUT COFFEE INTO A GREAT MYSTERY.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

NEITHER, BUT IT KEEP ME UP TILL I HAD IT FINISHED. THERE ARE NOT MANY THAT CAN DO THAT OUT OF ALL OF AUDIBLE BOOKS. A MEMORABLE COZY BOOK.

Any additional comments?

WORTH THE CREDIT.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Get rid of Mateo

Mateo and Joy are not Cozy worthy 😂😂😂 I just don’t like them. The grandmother is annoying and Claire is dumb.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too much coffee history

While I like some back ground knowledge building this was complete overkill! it added very little to the story and dragged the listening time out unbearably. The beginning dragged and the ending was completely predictable and rushed. I can't recommend you spending a credit on this one. I listened through the Audible Complete Catalog, so it was free, and I still almost gave up on it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Another Winner

Love the coffee information woven within the story.
Claire and Matt work together to save the Village Blend’s reputation.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Village Blend features new decaf coffee

Part owner and manager of New York’s The Village Blend coffee house in Greenwich Village, Clare Cosi has called a special meeting of her best baristas. Her ex-husband Matt Allegro and his friend Rick have a new coffee they want them to taste. When she tells them that demand for decaffeinated coffee has risen to 20 percent of their customers, they can’t believe so many want the “neutered” blend. After all, there are only a couple ways to decaffeinate coffee, and they both strip away some of the essence of the bean, leaving it flat. Now Rick is making the Village Blend the exclusive distributor of his new naturally decaffeinated coffee. His coffee hybrids grow decaffeinated beans, so no further processing is required, leaving the flavor fully intact. This premier group of baristas and Clare can’t believe it when they actually taste how good the coffee really is.

Clare puts clues together to determine that Rick has smuggled a cutting from his hybrid coffee plant into the US from Brazil to make it available for inspection during a press conference announcing the bean’s existence and celebrating its distribution exclusively through The Village Blend and its free standing kiosks worldwide. When the time for the reception is upon them, Matt spends the night with his ear attached to his cell phone, which worries Clare; what is Matt paying such close attention to while his buddy Rick is picking fights with a foreign diplomat in town for a special meeting of the United Nations? Clare steps outside the building to talk to Matt when a body falls from their reception 20 stories up and lands right in front of her. Things have gotten much worse.

It wouldn’t be a coffee house mystery unless Madame duBois is involved at some point. Matt’s octogenarian mother is the owner of The Village Blend. She is quite lively and will do almost anything to protect The Blend, often with hilarity following. In this book, Madame gets the three of them – Madame, Matt, and Clare – into a diplomat’s smash Halloween Party with terrific costumes. Circumstances are not intentionally funny but turn out that way. Matt and Rick and a third man all have the same costume! More clues are uncovered under all those masks.

The inevitable coffee “lesson” was much better suited for the novel in this fourth book in the series. Cleo Coyle gives information and a sort of history lesson about coffee along with the mystery, but it is all pertinent and interesting, too. These mini-lessons are some of the funniest points of the books as well, since she often makes the coffee making process quite sensual and full of double entendres.

Narrator Rebecca Gibel had quite a character list for DECAFFEINATED CORPSE. We had New York accents for Clare, Matt, and their daughter Joy as well as octogenarian Madame, a few foreign diplomats, a pawnbroker, a Caribbean born man, and so on. All the voices were distinct. Stars go to Rebecca Gibel for her hard work.

Even though I found this entry in the Coffeehouse mystery series a tiny bit bland and predictable, I still enjoyed it very much. This is a great mystery for coffee lovers and drinkers, decaf or leaded!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good read! (Listen)

A good storyline with unexpected twists. Narrator is great at the voices. Love the series- this is one of the better ones.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Decent

Another good installment. Pretty much like the previous in the series. If you've made it this far you already know what to expect.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • ML
  • 11-22-15

Too long

Good story but took FOREVER to end.
At least an hour could have been eliminated.

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1 person found this helpful