Cozy Mystery Review: Bulletproof Barista | Cleo Coyle | Coffeehouse Mysteries #20

The Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle are a cozy mystery series that I dip in and out of as new books come out. Its not a series I find necessary to read in order. The characters are so lovely and warm that picking up a book from this series is like visiting good friends and having a great chat to catch up, cozy indoors with a mug of incredible coffee. I plan to eventually read all of them, but this isn’t a series that I feel needs to be read in order to enjoy.

The latest Coffeehouse Mystery is book number 20, and the author’s note at the beginning mentioned that they wanted to build a mystery around what New Yorkers experience all the time—the challenge of “making art in a city that often doubles as an elaborate movie set” and around their love for comedy. In Bulletproof Barista, the Village Blend is chosen as a filming location for a hit television series, but a series of unfortunate events suggest that someone is out to sabotage the show, or maybe Village Blend!

About the Book | Bulletproof Barista

Only Murders in Gotham, the smash-hit streaming program, is famous for filming in authentic New York locations and using real New Yorkers as extras. For its second season, they’ve chosen to spotlight the century-old Village Blend and its quirky crew of baristas. Shop manager and master roaster Clare Cosi is beyond thrilled, especially when her superb bulletproof coffee lands her a craft services contract for the production.

Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the landmark shop, reveals an old kinship with the star of the show, comedian Jerry Sullivan. Now a Hollywood legend, Jerry frequented the Blend during his early years performing in Greenwich Village comedy clubs. But the past may hold more than nostalgia for Jerry. Suspicious accidents begin plaguing his shoot. Then a real bullet is fired from a stage gun, and Clare becomes convinced something sinister is afoot.

While Jerry’s production moves to exciting new locations, Clare keeps the coffee flowing—and her investigation going—even as a murderer lurks in the wings. But can she root out the rotten player in this Big Apple production before the lights go out on her? Includes a stellar menu of surefire recipes. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Review | Bulletproof Barista

The format of Bulletproof Barista was a lot of fun. While Clare’s is the main POV as usual in cozy mysteries, there is also another narrator who refers to themselves as The Player who is set on sabotaging the show filming at Village Blend, Only Murders in Gotham.

“Mind over matter, the Player decided. When you matter, no one minds. Well, now is the time to matter. And act. To cover your tracks.”

Adding in the short monologues from the Player enhanced the on-set vibe of the book. I thought setting the mystery around a film set and the complicated relationships of show-biz was both fun and fresh. This was a really way to set up a mystery—it felt sort of old school like the Nancy Drew books I read as a child. There was definitely a few plus a computer game set at a movie or theater production.

As the story opens, Clare is nervous and excited to meet one of her favorite commedians, Jerry Sullivan. For season 2 of his television series, Only Murders in Gotham, they’re filming an episode at the iconic Village Blend coffeehouse, which also happens to be an old haunt of Jerry’s from early in his career. If only their own baristas and their well-crafted blends could be the chosen refreshments for the cast and crew, but they soon learn that rival coffeehouse Driftwood Coffee landed that gig, and they’ve set up their truck right in front of Village Blend.

They may not have to worry about Driftwood Coffee for long, though, when one of the crew members drops to the ground after drinking a cup of coffee from their truck. It wasn’t just the burnt beans that had him in distress, someone has poisoned the coffee. When filming resumes the next day, a prop gun goes off with a blank bullet in it though it was supposed to be empty, and one of the Village Blend baristas is injured.

As more things go wrong, it becomes clear that someone is sabotaging the television show. Now that they’ve moved to Village Blend as their homebase and official caterer, Clare is in a prime position to do some investigating and find out who is behind the sabotage, before things escalate to murder.

This is an easy and fun mystery to jump into, whether you’re already a fan of the Coffeehouse Mysteries or this is your first introduction to the series. The cast of characters at Village Blend are always a delight, but this book brings in a whole new cast of characters working as the crew and actors on set, many of whom have stakes in the show being successful. Which makes it all the more puzzling that one of them must be sabotaging it. As security tightens up, it becomes clear that one of the main players is behind the sabotage, and Clare is looking to find out which one.

Plenty of suspects with varying motives, a few red herrings, and some good old-fashioned sleuthing make this a breezy and entertaining mystery. While some cozy mystery series run out of steam after several books, the Coffeehouse Mysteries are going strong at book twenty with no signs of stopping. The whodunnit got me, and I loved the way the mystery pieced together. A fun and fresh cozy mystery that gives us a peek behind the curtain on a tv show set and plenty of recipes to round out the book. So fun!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Cleo Coyle

CLEO COYLE is the New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestselling pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. With more than 1 million books sold, they have gained an enthusiastic following. Cleo’s “relenlessly entertaining” (Criminal Element) novels have earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus, Best of Year selection honors from multiple reviewers, and have been recommended by Booklist and Library Journal as among the best cozy mysteries for core library mystery collections.

When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or wrangling their rescue cats, Alice and Marc are New York Times bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, Toho, and MGM. One of those projects (ghostwritten by Alice Alfonsi) was named by Entertainment Weekly as the best media tie-in book written that year.

CONNECT WITH CLEO at CleoCoyle.com and CoffeehouseMystery.com

Book Series | Cleo Coyle

Cleo’s Coffeehouse Mystery series, celebrated for pioneering both the “urban cozy” and “coffee cozy” mystery genres, follows the adventures of amateur sleuth Clare Cosi, a single mom with a complicated love life who manages a Greenwich Village coffeehouse and a crew of quirky baristas who helps her solve perplexing crimes.

Cleo’s Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, hailed as a highly original and “utterly charming” (Mystery Scene) blend of cozy and hardboiled genres, features an earnest young New England widow who catches criminals with the help of a gumshoe ghost, the irrepressible spirit of a tough private detective who’d been gunned down in her bookshop decades before.