Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425197141
Berkley Prime Crime Publishing
270 Pages
$7.89; $7.99 Amazon
October 5, 2004
⭐⭐
There's trouble brewing at the Village Blend. Business is booming -- but Clare's customers are starting to die. Soon after stopping at the coffeehouse, a regular jumps to her death in the subway. Or was she has an axe to grind, especially after the "suicide" of another female customer. Unfortunately, his prime suspect is Bruce Bowman -- the new man in Clare's life. Bruce is the perfect blend of rugged good looks and potent personality. Too bad the women in his life keep turning up dead. Now Clare will risk her heart -- and her life -- to follow the killer's trail to the bitter end...
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Clare Cosi manages the Village coffeehouse. She also lives upstairs in a luxuriously decorated apartment, owned by her former mother-in law, which she sometimes shares with her ex-husband, Matteo, who's a coffee buyer and often out of the country. Currently, she's worried about her daughter, Joy, since she just broke up with someone yet is ready to get out again in the dating scene. So when Joy signs up for online dating, so does Clare, in the hopes that she'll be able to screen the men ahead of time without Joy knowing.
But Clare gets a surprise herself -- she meets a wealthy, attractive man named Bruce Bowman who's interested in her. Surprisingly, Clare likes him and secretly hopes he'll call. When he does, and she decides to make dinner for him, Matteo shows up unexpectedly and while she thinks the evening is ruined, Bruce makes the best of it and asks her out again.
But there's a problem in the dating world -- someone is killing off women who have been on the same dating site as Clare. At first, it all looks like suicides, but Detective Mike Quinn is beginning to think otherwise. And he also thinks that Bruce might be the one killing them. But Clare refuses to believe it, and decides to launch her own investigation to prove him otherwise. But one thing is definite -- Bruce does have a link to all these women, and Clare might be the next 'suicide' on the list if she's not careful...
This is the second book in the series, and I did like it better than the first. Unfortunately, I still don't like Matteo. He cheated on Clare through their entire marriage, and saying sex doesn't mean anything to him because there's no emotional connection is no different than saying killing animals doesn't mean anything if you have no emotional connection. It's cruel, it's wrong, and it's horrible. When Matteo married Clare, he took marriage vows -- which included being faithful, so I still think he's a pig and needs to get out of her life.
That being said, Clare is a tad too obsessed about coffee -- and this is coming from a woman who owns around ten different coffee brewers, is a Supertaster (I have more taste buds in my mouth than the average person and can taste flavors others can't), has grinders, foamers, etc., and keeps around ten or twenty different types of coffee in the house at any given time. I love coffee. But I don't go around telling anyone about the wonders of it. They already know if they're coffee drinkers. (Let's just say a major chain kinda sucks when it comes to making good coffee). Clare makes me a bit nauseous when it comes to coffee. I'd really like to see her back off a bit.
Trying not to give anything else away in this book is really difficult, but I will say that I didn't care for the ending at all. It was depressing, and honestly, it makes me not want to read any more of these for awhile. Which isn't to say it's not a good book; but if I feel this way about it the next day after reading it (and I waited until morning to write this review) then I can't in all good conscience give it more than two stars because of it. Sorry about that.
At any rate, others might think a lot higher of this book, but I really don't like those that depress me, which is why I rarely read thrillers. I read to relax and enjoy, not be depressed nor angry. Still, I will try the next in the series to see how things progress...eventually.
https://www.amazon.com/Through-Grinder-Coffeehouse-Mysteries-No/dp/042519714X/ref=
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3264342983
More on Cleo Coyle's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/cleo-coyle/
No comments:
Post a Comment