(Clare Cosi used to manage New York City’s historic Villag...)
Clare Cosi used to manage New York City’s historic Village Blend coffeehouse until she opted for quieter pastures and more suburban life. But after ten years away she’s back in action and back to the grind, serving up steaming hot caffeine one cup at a time. With a sprawling rent-free apartment directly above the coffeehouse, her cat Java by her side, and plenty of redecorating ideas, Clare is thrilled to return to work - until she discovers the assistant manager dead in the back of the store, coffee grounds strewn everywhere.
(Business is booming at Clare Cosi's Village Blend, until ...)
Business is booming at Clare Cosi's Village Blend, until her female customers start to die. Lieutenant Quinn is convinced that someone has an axe to grind, and, unfortunately, his prime suspect is the new man in Clare's life. Now Clare will risk her heart - and her life - to follow the killer's trail to the bitter end.
(When one of her baristas unwittingly serves a poisonous l...)
When one of her baristas unwittingly serves a poisonous latte to a prominent figure on the fashion scene, Clare Cosi must uncover some jolting secrets to save her shop.
(Clare Cosi's new friend, millionaire David Mintzer, has a...)
Clare Cosi's new friend, millionaire David Mintzer, has an offer no New York barista could turn down: an all-expenses-paid summer away from the sticky city. At his Hamptons mansion, she'll relax, soak up the sun, and, oh yes, train the staff of his new restaurant. So Clare packs up her daughter, her former mother-in-law, and her special recipe for iced coffee - for what she hopes will be one de-latte-full summer... Soon, Clare tends the coffee bar at her first Hamptons gala. But the festivities come to a bitter end when an employee turns up dead in David's bathroom - a botched attempt on the millionaire's life.
(When an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world's...)
When an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world's first botanically decaffeinated coffee bean and smuggles it into the country, Clare Cosi, manager of Village Blend, believes it's a business opportunity she needs to investigate... at least until the first dead body shows up. When an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world's first botanically decaffeinated coffee bean and smuggles it into the country, Clare Cosi, manager of Village Blend, believes it's a business opportunity she needs to investigate... at least until the first dead body shows up.
(Clare Cosi's daughter, Joy, is interning-and falling- for...)
Clare Cosi's daughter, Joy, is interning-and falling- for a top New York chef when his kitchen turns cutthroat, and Joy becomes a murder suspect. Clare knows she must catch the real killer-even if it lands her in the hottest water of her life.
(Streetlights shimmer through icy flakes, cafés glow with ...)
Streetlights shimmer through icy flakes, cafés glow with welcoming warmth, and a layer of snow dusts historic townhouses like powdered sugar on holiday confections. Murder has no place in such a pretty picture, until now... Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has grown very fond of Alfred Glockner, the part-time comic and genuinely jolly charity Santa who's been using her Village Blend as a place to warm his mittens. When she finds him brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, a few subtle clues convince her that Alfred's death was something more than the tragic result of a random mugging - the conclusion of the police. With Clare's boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, distracted by a cold case of his own, and ex-husband Matt investigating this year's holiday lingerie catalogs (an annual event), Clare charges ahead solo to solve her beloved Santa's slaying. Then someone tries to ice Clare, and she really gets steamed. But she'd better watch out, because if she fails to stop this stone-cold killer, she may just get the biggest chill of her life.
(Believing the two events are related, Clare investigates,...)
Believing the two events are related, Clare investigates, staking out a five-borough bake sale and sniffing out clues in the pizza ovens of Brooklyn. When her detective boyfriend, Mike Quinn, is pulled into the fire of a false accusation, Clare is desperate to put out the flames. But will she be able to come to Mike's rescue before someone tries to extinguish her? Bonus recipes include firehouse favorites Believing the two events are related, Clare investigates, staking out a five-borough bake sale and sniffing out clues in the pizza ovens of Brooklyn.
(The police dismiss "sleeping beauty" as the victim of a d...)
The police dismiss "sleeping beauty" as the victim of a drug overdose. Then Clare uncovers evidence that points to a list of suspects - from a New York Giant to quite a few wicked witches - and a cold case murder that reaches back to the Cold War. Now Clare is really in the woods with a dangerous predator on her heels and an investigation that leads from a secret Prince Charming Club right back to her own NYPD detective boyfriend. If she doesn't solve this mystery, those magic beans predict an unhappy ending.
(Clare's visit to the nation's capital is off to a gracefu...)
Clare's visit to the nation's capital is off to a graceful start. Her octogenarian employer is bunking with her in a charming Georgetown mansion, and she's invited to work with a respected curator on the Smithsonian's culinary salute to coffee in America. Unfortunately, Clare's new Village Blend DC is struggling to earn a profit - until its second-floor jazz club attracts a high-profile fan, the college-age daughter of the U.S. President. Clare's stock rises as the First Lady befriends her, but she soon learns a stark lesson: Washington can be murder. First, a stylish State Department employee suspiciously collapses in her coffeehouse. Then the President's daughter goes missing. Is she a runaway bride or is something more sinister in play?
(After everything Clare and her NYPD detective boyfriend h...)
After everything Clare and her NYPD detective boyfriend have been through, they deserve a little bit of happily ever after. But while Mike's marriage proposal to Clare is steeped in perfection, the celebration of their engagement is not long-lived. First, a grim-faced attorney interrupts their party with a mysterious letter bequeathing a hidden treasure to Clare's daughter. Next, the world-famous jeweler who designed Clare's ring is found poisoned in his shop. Both events appear to be connected to a cold case murder involving a sunken ship, an Italian curse, a charming jewel thief, and a shocking family secret. With deadly trouble brewing, Clare must track down clues in some of New York's most secret places before an old vendetta produces fresh corpses.
(A new smartphone dating game turns the Village Blend into...)
A new smartphone dating game turns the Village Blend into a hookup hot spot, until one dark night, when a gunshot leaves a dead body behind and the landmark coffeehouse becomes the center of a whole new scene - a crime scene. As Village Blend manager Clare Cosi attempts to finalize a date for her wedding, her ex-husband becomes addicted to making dates through smartphone swipes. Clare has mixed feelings about these quickie matchups happening in her coffeehouse. Even her octogenarian employer is selecting suitors by screenshot! But business is booming, and Clare works hard to keep the espresso shots flowing. Then one dark night, another kind of shot leaves a dead body for her to find. The corpse is a successful entrepreneur who became notorious for his "hit it and quit it" behavior: prowling for women on dating apps, then devastating his conquests with morning-after insults.
Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure didn't believe in ghosts until she was haunted by the hard-boiled spirit of 1940s private investigator Jack Shepard. Now Jack is back on the job, and Pen is eternally grateful... After an elegant new customer has a breakdown in her shop, Penelope suspects there is something bogus behind the biggest bestseller of the year. This popular potboiler is so hot that folks in her tiny Rhode Island town are dying to read it - literally. First one customer turns up dead, followed by another mysterious fatality connected to the book, which Pen discovers is more than just fiction. Now, with the help of her gumshoe ghost, Pen must solve the real-life cold case behind the bogus bestseller before the killer closes the book on her.
(An acquaintance of Clare's elegant employer - and fellow ...)
An acquaintance of Clare's elegant employer - and fellow member of an exclusive Gotham circle known as "The Ladies Who Brunch" - invited Clare to her posh hotel to sample gourmet wedding cakes. The pair took a stroll after their indulgent tasting and, according to security camera footage, a masked figure snatched the hotel heiress at gunpoint with Clare looking on. Did the kidnapper take Clare, too? The camera went dark, just like Clare's memory. Soon authorities grow suspicious. Is Clare really a victim? Or merely acting like one? Evidence is mounting that she set the woman up. To clear her name, Clare must find a way to reclaim her memories and rescue the heiress before this high-stakes crime ends in tragedy.
(Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has been hired to create a...)
Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has been hired to create a gourmet coffee and dessert bar for her ex-husband's wedding. But her main problem is bridezilla Breanne Summour.
(A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare is also a de...)
A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare is also a dedicated sleuth, and she's determined to track down this ruthless driver who ran down an innocent friend and customer. In the meantime, her ex-husband Matt, the shop's globetrotting coffee buyer, sources some amazing new beans from Brazil. But he soon discovers that he's importing more than coffee, and Clare may have been the real target of that deadly driver. Can ex-husband and wife work together to solve this mystery? Or will their newest brew lead to murder?
Cleo Coyle is a collaboration of two American writers and novelists. One of these authors is Alice Alfonsi who is the New York Times bestselling writer, working in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Under the name Cleo Coyle, they write the Coffeehouse Mystery titles.
Background
Alice Alfonsi was born in 1962 and grew up with Italian parents in working-class neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Antonio and Rose Alfonsi. Her father was the son of an Italian mounted police officer and his wife who emigrated to the United States from Italy. He served in the Army Air Corps then worked for years in a Pittsburgh area steel mill.
Education
Alice graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Alice Alfonsi was first published in 1994 with the novel Honky Tonk Dreams, writing as Rosemary Grace. Her debut under her real name was an erotic horror anthology that she co-edited entitled Dark Seductions. Her debuts as Cleo Coyle and Alice Kimberly were in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
Today, with the help of her husband, she has become an established author of the Mystery genre. Apart from that, she also writes novels based on the young adult and nonfiction genres. She likes to stay in touch with her fans and hear from them through her website. On her website, she frequently keeps posting coffee picks and recipes and signs up her readers for the free coffee drawings weekly newsletter.
When not busy in writing the haunting novels about ghosts and coffeehouses, Cleo and her husband Marc work as the best selling media tie-in writers for the New York Times. Together, they penned down properties for famous corporate companies such as NBC, MGM, Imagine, Lucasfilm and Fox. Cleo and her husband, both were born and brought up in a small town in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, they met each other after moving to New York City, when they started their careers after their graduation.
The first novel of the Coffeehouse Mystery series was published in the year 2003 by the Berkley Books publishing house. It was titled "On What Grounds" and depicted the life story of the main protagonist Clare Cosi. Clare is the manager of a landmark coffeehouse named Village Blend situated in the Greenwich Villag of New York City. The plot of the novel is set in East Hampton and New York in the United States. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Clare arrives in her coffeehouse just as usual, but this time something bad has happened. The assistant manager of the coffeehouse is found dead in the back of Village Blend’s storeroom. The police appoint a couple of detectives to investigate the murder of the assistant manager, who come up to the conclusion after an investigation that there was no foul play or forced entry. Hence, they conclude it to be an accident and seem to close the case. However, Clare Cosi does not seem to be convinced by the work of the detectives. Her earlier days were not quite happy as she had to leave her husband because of an unhappy marriage around 10 years ago. Because of that, she also had to leave her beloved job as the manager of Village Blend at that time. During those 10 years. She was happy living a lonely life along with her daughter and raising her in the suburbs of New Jersey.
The second novel of the series was published under the title "Through the Grinder". It was published in the year 2004 by the Berkley Books publishing house. The novel continues to depict the difficult life of the main protagonist Clare Cosi who works as the manager of the coffeehouse named Village Blend. In the opening sequence of the novel, Clare seems to be beginning her new life in New York City in the right direction along with her grown-up daughter Joy. She lives close to the culinary school of her daughter and her ex-husband Matt’s office, which is located next to her coffeehouse. To add new happenings in her life, the NYPD detective named Mike Quinn, who helped Clare solve the murder of her assistant manager Annabelle Hart, has become a new loyal customer of her coffeehouse. Detective Quinn likes to hear Clare’s opinions on his cases as much as he likes the lattes made by her. He is particularly interested in knowing her opinion on his latest case related to suicide.
Also, among their co-authored projects are the Haunted Bookshop mysteries, written under the pen name Alice Kimberly.
(Clare's visit to the nation's capital is off to a gracefu...)
2015
Views
"My fascination with ghosts just came naturally and very early. It’s definitely something that started before I was old enough to understand where it came from. What I call “ghost hunting” is a favorite pastime of mine and my husband’s, which is what I call visiting places purported to be haunted. I’ve even had my own encounters with ghosts/spirits - one with my husband as a witness, so I assure you that I’m not crackers. Anyway, now that my mother, my beloved Aunt Mary, and a respected mentor have all passed over, I feel a real connection to people on the other side, so when I write about ghosts, it’s from a genuine perspective. And if anyone reading this thinks the spirits of the dead are a big crock, by all means chock my viewpoint up to my superior imaginative abilities (or my unbalanced creative mind). Either way, it works for me when putting specters on paper."
Quotations:
"I can’t think of many better uses for fiction, or any art, than to comfort the grieving; to lift them up with an idea that maybe they really aren’t so alone, that maybe there really are spirits looking after them, even if those spirits reside within themselves - as imagination, passion, or creative abilities they have yet to tap."
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Here is what Marc Cerasini stated about his wife and collaborator Alice: "Along with a vivid imagination, she possessed a journalist’s flair for detail and description, so it’s no surprise she gave up fiction to become a reporter for Britain’s Daily Mail."
Interests
cooking
Writers
Nora Ephron, Raymond Chandler, Neil Simon, Thornton Wilder, R. A. Dick (Josephine Leslie), Susan Isaacs, Fay Weldon, Janet Evanovich, Agatha Christie, O. Henry, Mark Twain, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, Thomas Harris, Carolyn Hart, Diane Mott Davidson, Rex Stout, Nan and Ivan Lyons, Dashiell Hammett, Woody Allen, Paddy Chayefsky, Tom Stoppard, Tom Wolfe, David Mamet, Edward Albee, Clare Booth Luce, Fitzgerald, Poe, Shakespeare, Sondheim, Sylvia Plath, Jim Daniels
Connections
Alice lives with her husband Marc Cerasini in Queens, New York. They met each other after moving to New York City when they started their careers after their graduation. Cleo attended the Carnegie Mellon University, whereas her husband attended Ohio University. They fell in love with each other and eventually married in a church in Nevada.