
No Roast for the Weary
by Cleo Coyle
ISBN-13: 9780593642283
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: April 1, 2025
Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won't survive if she doesn't sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend's customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer's Block Lounge is born.
Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop's second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when one of their members was found murdered in another part of town. The case was never solved. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward...
Soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs—driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway—while penning projects during the day.
Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest.
My Review:
No Roast for the Weary is a cozy mystery. This novel is the 21th in the series. You don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this story didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous books.
A member of the original Writer's Block group (who has mental problems) is writing a true crime unveiling whodunit of an unsolved crime. Two members of his group got into a fist fight behind the Village Blend, and one of the fighters was later found murdered in another part of town. In current day, this writer is attacked and unconscious, and his manuscript is nowhere to be found. And several people want to find it.
Clare was the one primarily investigating by finding the original group members and talking with them about the old Writer's Block Lounge. She asked good questions and realized that several people were lying about various things. This was a clue-based mystery, but the clues built up slowly and the critical clue didn't come until the end. Then Clare had to race to warn several young writers about an unexpected danger.
There were only a few uses of bad language. There were no graphic sex scenes. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.
If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.