Cleo Coyle's Roast Mortem

Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery series has been one of my absolute favorite set of "cozies." Coffee, New York City, baking, murder. What's not to love? Well, besides the occasional steamy moments I skim over in any book. And I'm not talking about the steam from an espresso machine ... although there's a lot of detailed info about coffee brewing and equipment and whatnot that, to be honest, I tend to skim over as well. After reading as many in the series as I have it gets a little "eh."

Roast Mortem is the ninth book in the series and, if you're going to read them at all, I highly suggest that they be read in order. I actually went against my usual rule about these things this past Christmas and skipped ahead to the twelfth for a book club read ... and it about killed me because so much had obviously happened between # 8 and # 12 that I was in the dark about. Never again!!!

It was a nice change of pace to have so much of the focus on Queens (which is highly under-represented in books that I've read) and to highlight the NYFD (although why equipment was invented for them for the book instead of just writing about what really gets used is totally beyond my comprehension).

BUT

Clare Cosi (the main character) has always had traits that I've found annoying and those remain ... as has my questioning of her choices when it comes to men ... and the not-so-occasional shake of my head at how she tends to respond to life in general ... and how if I met the character in real life we probably wouldn't hit it off (although I'd gladly become besties with some of the supporting cast!).

Hrmph.

I can't help but wonder if maybe that skip ahead back in December was why I just wasn't "feeling" Roast Mortem the way that I have others in the series. I kept thinking to myself "yeah, yeah, yeah ... I know where this is going" with side-stories and character developments. Maybe I'll skip ahead to # 13 the next time I feel like continuing with the series. I did quite enjoy # 12. Well, except for being annoyed by Clare ... and skimming the coffee industry TMI ... and .......

Hrmph.