Holiday Buzz: 01/22/20

Holiday Buzz by Cleo Coyle is the twelfth book in the Coffeehouse mystery series. It's Christmas again and Clare and the Village Blend are participating in the Great New York Cookie Swap, an annual tradition where pastry chefs make themed delights for charity.

At the one held near the carousel in Central Park, Clare's part time employee, "M", is bludgeoned to death. A new detective with ties to the mayor declares her death is part of the "The Christmas Stalkings" attacks, but Clare believes otherwise.

In the background of this, there is Mike Quinn still working in Washington, DC. He's supposed to be home but the weather just isn't going to allow it. The plane he was supposedly on crashes and Clare expects the worst.

Frankly it would have been better to kill Quinn off. His relationship with Clare seems be getting all the more poisonous. Being in a job now where he can't share day to day things with her has made him surly and secretive, even on things he can talk about. He's prone to over react and handcuff her and ask questions later.

Anyway, one death leads to another. Investigating it involves pretending to be a Russian ice skater. There is other derring-do and enough mix of red herrings and actual clues to keep things interesting and moving.

My only on-going complaint about this series is the underlying misogyny. The misuse of female, especially in a derogatory manner is annoying. The continued forced binary between men and women with no wiggle room, no trans or non-binary characters in a city as large and diverse as New York, is shameful.

The 13th volume is Billionaire Blend (2013).

Four stars

Comments (0)