Murder by Mocha

Publisher's Summary

Clare's Village Blend coffee beans are being used to create a new java love potion: a "Mocha Magic Coffee," billed as an aphrodisiac. The product, expected to rake in millions, will be sold exclusively on Aphrodite's Village, one of the most popular online communities for women. But at its launch, one of the website's editors is murdered. Clare is convinced a bitter killer wants the secret formula. Can she catch who's gone loco for mocha?

©2011 Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO

Coffee, chocolate and murder!!

If terrific coffee drinks were not enough, the. Village Blend Coffee shop in New York has decided to team up with a superb chocolate company to market a new blend guaranteed to get the romantic juices flowing. Clare, the store's manager, is not convinced that this is a great idea but the store's owner, Madame, also Clare's mother in law, has already set the deal up with one of her long time friends--Alicia. But when the event to publicize the product brings Alicia running to Clare's hotel room because of a dead body in her bed, Clare really knows mischief is stalking this product.

Someone is definitely trying to defeat the start of this new product as more bodies appear. There is also something suspiciously wrong with this new blend. Could there be an illegal substance hidden within this new yummy drink? Clare and all the usual characters from these coffee house mysteries team up again to find the culprit. Clare and her daughter are also becoming more involved with their love interests--both policeman. This time, the police department is having problems of it's own.

Always fun and intriguingly involved with coffee facts and New York life, once again the Cleo Coyle husband and wife team have created a fascinating cozy mystery filled with recipes! The personal lives of the characters become more and more involved with every book, but the mystery always drives each story. I find that the audio version of these books really adds drama to already excellent books.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Chocolate Chaos

The mystery starts early in this book, and continues until the end. Clare Cosi manages a coffee house. She is also an amateur sleuth whose significant other is a detective for the New York Police Department. Clare's adventures as a detective are probably unlikely, but very entertaining. She is smart and usually sensible enough not to put her life in danger.

This book had enough plot twists and interesting characters to keep me entertained and interested. I found Clare to be a likable protagonist. Narrator Rebecca Gibel has a pleasing voice and a deft talent for character voices.

This book is a later entry in a series, but stands on it's own. I look forward to reading other books in the series. This one is a winner for me.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Love mystery and coffee.

Any additional comments?

I love learning about coffee.....I hope it is all true. Enjoyable series. I am so glad that I happened upon it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

The Perfect Novel for the Coffee Lover!

This is the first book I have read in the Coffeehouse mystery series & based on my experience I would say it's okay to read it without having read the others. It didn't seem like I was missing any crucial points.

Rebecca Gibel is a great narrator. She keeps your interest and never seemed to have any problems with the many voices she had to employ for this crazy cast of characters. But, what I really loved about this book was the fact that it was fun & sexy, rather than silly & crass. I love that the main character isn't portrayed as some silly, stupid damsel in distress. Instead, Clare is an interesting yet stable character with normal, healthy relationships with the people she loves: her boyfriend, ex-mother-in-law, daughter, and even her ex-husband. It's all the other people in the novel who are crazy :)

One of the really fun things about this book is that the author, Cleo Coyle, is obviously a foodie. Her description of coffee and chocolate--and all the ways Clare used them in her recipes--was fascinating. I'm acutally walking away from this book with a recipe I plan on trying!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

4 stars

loved it, I would like more of her books to be audio. I listen on my I-Pod

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

another good one

I really enjoy the Cleo Coyle books. I like it that they also have recipes in them.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not as good as the first

My first complaint is, why is there a gap between the first "coffee" mystery and this one? Audible, if you are going to offer a series, offer all the books so we don't have to listen to them out of order. I would have liked to listen to the second and third (I think this was the fourth). Somehow between the first and the fourth, Clair hooked up with the cop from book one. And her daughter was in college and all of a sudden, she's in paris. So I feel cheated. That's not the author's fault, of course, and not the reason I only gave the book a 3. I still enjoyed the general atmosphere, but the story this time around was unfocused. There were way too many characters and too many crimes going on. Too many suspects, all of who were very weird but not likely candidates. I didn't like the way Clair jumped from person to person, accusing everyone of the murder. The scene in the beginning with the mysterious guy in the hotel was beyond my comprehension. It wasn't even plausible. Then you had the ridiculous old woman and the freaky Greek mythology cult. Add to that the ex mother in law / coffee shop owner who gets more and more untrustworthy, along with the extremely awkward love scenes with the cop, and the fact that no one remembered anything. It was all just too much for me. I still want to listen to the others, but this one wasn't the greatest.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

I'll read them from now on....

First let me say that I like this series -- I like the coffee trivia, I like the characters, I enjoy the descriptions of coffee events, the clothes, the chatter, the recipes. I like the characters of Clare and especially of "Madam" -- I can just picture her. Beyond that, I think the plots are interesting and innovative. I like these books.

I've read several of them -- this is the first I've listened to. I probably won't listen to one again -- not the narrator's fault, not at all.

Here's the thing -- for me. I understand some of you out there like and enjoy XXX-rated love scenes, but I don't. When I was reading the books, I'd just skip over it -- didn't read it, wasn't necessary to the plot, didn't bother me a bit, I just flipped past it. But listening, I was forced to sit through it -- hard to skip ahead, on an audiobook.

In this book, there were way too many of those overly sexualized scenes for me -- I just don't appreciate it. I want DEATH! MURDER! Not love - ha!

This one had one really disturbing scene: Clare and her boyfriend are getting friendly, he wanted sex, she said "no" repeatedly, forcefully, several times over. He won't quit, keeps on his mission and of course eventually she relents. But get this: The boyfriend is a police lieutenant. This is disturbing -- we women expect men to respect the word "no". If they don't, charges of rape have been brought. In this case, the guy is a policeman, for crying out loud. He knows the law!

I just don't like it -- I don't suppose men are reading these things, but how can we expect them to respect the word "no" when in fiction, if the man just pushes ahead and succeeds, the woman -- eventually -- will fall all over herself, thinking he's wonderful?

Wrong message, in my opinion.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

Good writer, overcrowded story

This is a good writer, but she ruined this book with multiple subplots and needless complications. Also, she uses long-winded explication scenes, which annoy me.

Having said that, it's excellent fun for foodies and coffee addicts, and the core cast are very enjoyable characters. The reader is excellent.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Not one of her best

I enjoy Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries, but this one was hard to rey. It starts slow and doesn’t seem to get anywhere for quite a while. The story is a little more bizarre and hard to swallow than the others in the series. The author ties things up neatly at the end, but it’s a bit of a stretch. I found myself scratching my head in regards to the author’s choices several times.
Nonetheless, I enjoy the series overall. The last book was probably one of the best which probably made this one more difficult to read. Ah well - on to the next one!