Honey Roasted

Honey Roasted is the 19th coffeehouse mystery by Cleo Coyle, the pen name of husband and wife writing duo Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. This series is my favorite cozy mystery series and I waited over a year for this installment of the series. I was not disappointed. Honey Roasted was a fun, relaxing read. 

The story opens with Village Blend coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi creating a new coffee drink for her upcoming wedding reception. The drink is made from honey processed coffee. The honey for the new Honey Cinnamon Latte was sourced by Village Blend owner Madame's old friend Bea Hastings. Bea has cultivated a rare, prize winning nectar from her rooftop bee hives. One night after the shop was closed for business, Clare finds a swarm of bees in the Blend's chimney and basement. She believes that the bees may have come from Bea's rooftop greenhouse and walks over to Bea's home for a conversation about them. However, Clare finds Bea unconscious on her balcony. The police determine that Bea attempted suicide but Clare disputes this idea knowing that Bea would never abandon her hives. She sets out to investigate what happened to Bea and discovers the world of competitive urban beekeepers. 

I enjoyed this novel. I read it in one sitting but had a few adverse thoughts about the story. Clare is depicted for the first time in the series as an anxious woman who can not make any decisions on her own. This is not in keeping with her character. Also, her relationship with Mike Quinn is portrayed differently. For the first time, they have problems. While this can be attributed to their approaching matrimony something felt wrong about how much stress they were under. They were not communicating at all. What has always made their relationship solid was their ability to talk with each other about anything. To suddenly start avoiding each other was unusual. Another different aspect to the story was that there was no murder, only an attempted murder. I thought alot about these differences from earlier books in the series and began to see that the authors needed to make changes in their series to keep it fresh. It was all entertaining anyway so were these changes damaging? I don't think so. When there is always a murder in the same place the reader can become bored. 

While this book is advertised as a being able to be read as a standalone, I think it would be best if new readers start with another book in the series. The story presupposes knowledge about the Blend and the characters.  Highly recommended. 4 out of 5 stars.