French Pressed, Coffehouse Mystery #6

Well this book was phenomenal! There were all sorts of twists and turns. This book reintroduces us to Chef Tommy Keitel, whom is both Joy’s boss and lover. He just also happens to be married. We are also introduced to two new characters, both detectives, Detective Sue Ellen Bass and Detective Lori Soles

            We start off with a thrilling beginning in Chef Keitel’s restaurant with Madame and Clare. They have just finished eating and Clare decides she wants to see Joy. While in the kitchen, she sees her daughter get berated and attacked by the sous chef, Brigitte. Clare steps in and saves her. Afterwards a grateful Joy thanks her mother.    

            We soon step into a hot scene with Clare and her hunky boyfriend, Detective Quinn. And just when we think their relationship is going to go to the next level, who should want to walk in after a month long absence? That’s right, Matt Allegro.

            The night ends with a bang when Clare and Matt get a phone call from a distraught Joy, who enters a friend’s apartment to find him dead from a stab wound. They rush over and Clare goes into detective mode, helping out the leading detective. The police release Joy after questioning her and Clare and they then return home.

            To keep an eye on Joy, Clare sells Keitel on her coffee menu for his restaurant. After Keitel gets her signed up, he takes her to his cheese cave and makes a pass at her, which is witnessed by Joy. She storms out and disappears. We later found out she went to her grandmother and told her everything. Joy then returns for work where Tommy breaks up with her publicly and then fires her. After the restaurant closes, Joy returns to collect her things and Clare finds her in the kitchen with Tommy’s body, who just happens to have one of Joy’s knives buried in him. After the police question them, Joy is arrested and charged with the murder of Tommy Keitel.

            Clare gets Mike to help her solve the case.  Along the way to solving the investigation, Clare inadvertently helped Mike solve his case of the May-September gang and they also across more bodies.

            The ending was a little different than in the previous book because the murderer was kind of obvious before the climax, but there were still some surprises that could only be revealed in the Cleo Coyle way. The motive was surprising, though.

            In the epilogue, we meet up with Clare in the hospital. We see Mike Quinn try to convince Clare to go after her PI license, to which she pretty much says maybe too. He just wants her to get comfortable with a gun if she’s always going to get herself into sticky situations all the time. I'm glad to see Joy leaving because she was working my last nerve. She was an annoying daughter. I'm glad this happen to her because she needed a reality check.