* A pound of one of Cleo Coyle’s favorite coffees is periodically awarded to a newsletter subscriber. Winners are chosen at random from the current list of valid, active e-mail addresses.

Welcome to Cleo's

H a u n t e d

Bookshop

A mystery series Cleo Coyle writes

under the pen name

Alice Kimberly

"He is hard boiled in the tradition of
Philip Marlowe, and she is a genteel Miss Marple; yet the two opposites make an explosive combination..."

—Midwest Book Review

Meet the widow,
bookshop owner...

Penelope

After her husband’s suicide, young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure moves herself and her young son from New York City back to her little New England hometown of Quindicott, Rhode Island. When she arrives, however, she finds her aunt Sadie Thornton in financial trouble and about to lose the family's old bookshop. Unwilling to allow the business to fail, Pen cashes her late husband’s life insurance money and uses every penny to overhaul the inventory and remodel the place. As fate would have it, the construction rouses the spirit of a dead man, a private investigator from New York who’d been gunned down on the premises in 1949 while investigating a murder. Waking from a half-century of slumber, the hard-boiled ghost is less than thrilled to find himself cosmically imprisoned within the fieldstone walls of Pen’s bookstore...

Meet the

Ghost...

Jack
Shepard, PI

In life, Jack's pulse pounded to the rhythm of the city streets: the smoky dice joints and swingin’ suds clubs. Why couldn’t he have been gunned down in a joint like that? Instead, he got lead poisoning in the god-forsaken sticks, eternity in cornpone alley. There was only one thing that made this backwater existence tolerable. Her name was Penelope.
Okay, so the broad was one of those annoying do-right, fair-play Jane types, but she had a nice face, a sweet voice, and Jack always had been a sucker for redheads. If he heard her thoughts right, Penelope didn’t even believe in ghosts. Well, he hadn’t believed in them, either. But, brother, had he been wrong. Now he was a disembodied spirit, sentenced for his sins to exist in a world he hardly knew. Lucky for him his purgatory came with an auburn haired angel, a doll named Penelope he couldn’t stop watching or watching over...

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READ THEIR BOOKS

In 2004, Cleo Coyle launched her Haunted Bookshop Mysteries under the
pen name Alice Kimberly. There are now 4 novels with a 5th coming in 2009. Scroll down to read more about this nationally bestselling series.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming in January 2009.

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION

SCROLL DOWN TO LEARN MORE
ABOUT THE NEW BOOK!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A SPOOKY CONVERSATION!

Amanda Killgore, reviewer for Huntress and Eternal Night, interviewed Cleo/Alice about her Ghostly series. Cleo/Alice discusses inspirations for her Haunted Bookshop novels, including her love of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and (don't get spooked now) cemeteries.

Click here to read the interview

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Haunted
Bookshop #1

The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure

Alice Kimberly

The spirit is willing...
to catch a killer.

Young widow Penelope and her Aunt Sadie are making ends met by running their newly remodeled mystery bookshop, a quaint New England landmark, rumored to be haunted. Pen may not believe in ghosts, but she does believe in good publicity—like nabbing Timothy Brennan for a book signing. But soon after the bestselling thriller writer reveals a secret about the store's link to a 1940's murder, he keels over dead, right in the middle of the store's new Community Events space. Who gives Mrs. McClure the first clue that it was murder? The bookstore's full-time ghost, a PI who was murdered on the very spot more than fifty years before. Is he a figment of Pen's overactive imagination? Or is the oddly likeable fedora-wearing specter the only hope Pen has to solve the crime? You can bet your everlasting life on it.

Excerpt:

“Listen to me, baby, all that counts now is you and your son. You’re in it together. Isn’t that what you told the kid this morning?”

“I don’t believe it," I told the ghost. "You were there this morning? With us? Upstairs, in Spencer’s bedroom? You heard me say that?”

“Uh, so anyway, doll, let’s get back to the case—”

“Oh, no you don’t. I want you to answer my question. Were you spying on us? On me? Upstairs in our private rooms?”

“I like to think of it as surveillance.”

“Well I forbid you to go up there again.”

“Lady, you can’t lay down house rules to a man with no body.”

Click here to purchase

Haunted Bookshop Mystery #1

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure.

Haunted
Bookshop #2

The Ghost and
the Dead Deb

Alice Kimberly

Don't haunt the
customers!

This was the only rule bookshop owner had given her resident ghost, hard-boiled private eye Jack Shepard. But when the hot young author Angel Stark arrives at the store to promote her latest—a book of true crime—Jack can hardly contain himself. After all, crime is his specialty. Angel's books is an unsolved mystery about a debutante found strangled to death. And it's filled with juicy details that point a finger at a number of people in the deb's high society circle. But when the author winds up dead too—in precisely the same way—Pen is fast on the case...which means Jack is too. After all, a ghost detective never rests in peace.

Excerpt:

“In my day, dames with money from well-heeled families hired me to help them duck scandal on the QT. The last thing they’d ever do was write a book about it and tart it up in front of a ham-handed audience for applause.”

The booming, masculine voice in my head was either the ghost of PI Jack Shepard or a delusion of my half-demented mind. Which was true? Take your pick.

“It’s a different world than the ’40’s, Jack,” I silently replied.

“I liked my world better," Jack said. "The uptown crowd kept their trashy messes in the back alley, not on their bookshelf.”

Click here to purchase

Haunted Bookshop Mystery #2

The Ghost and the Dead Deb

Haunted
Bookshop #3

The Ghost and the
Dead Man's Library

Alice Kimberly

Sleuth,
Nevermore?

Jack Shepard didn’t have much use for books when he was alive. Now that he's dead, he has even less interest in the crate of dusty old tomes that arrive at the bookshop he’s been haunting. Penelope, on the other hand, is thrilled with the delivery. The rare old Poe library was willed to her shop by an elderly admirer of her aunt Sadie’s. The dead man’s library is so valuable that Pen is inundated with astronomical offers for every volume in the set. Everything appears rosy, until Pen begins to sell the books, one by one…and one by one each buyer dies. The police don’t believe Pen’s theory—that these deaths are linked to the rare book purchases. In fact, the police don’t believe these deaths are murders at all. Pen, of course, knows differently, which means it’s time to persuade her hard-boiled haunter to stop resting in peace, start cracking some clues, and make sure this twisted Poe freak kills...nevermore.

Excerpt:

“Need a bedtime story, baby?”

“Jack?” I whispered into the dark.

“Well, it ain’t Clark Gable.”

I closed my eyes and sighed, happy to hear his voice. “Strange,” I whispered.

“What?” the ghost asked.

“I never would have thought there’d be so many things in life more disturbing than talking to a dead man.”

“Such as?”

My eyes opened again. I turned onto my side, hugged a pillow to me. “I can’t get the image out of my head.”

“You mean, Peter Chesley’s broken old body, lying like a pretzel at the base of the staircase he couldn’t climb?”

“I was right there, Jack...I was right there with Mr. Chesley, and I heard that crash upstairs. I knew something was wrong, but I left! I drove away!...He didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does.”

“Baby…who do you think you’re talking to?”

Click here to purchase

Haunted Bookshop Mystery #3

The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library

Haunted
Bookshop #4

The Ghost
and the
Femme Fatale

Alice Kimberly

Haunted
by her past...

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Penelope Thornton-McClure handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's film noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.
With local police on the wrong track, Penelope enlists the help of Jack Shepard, PI. Okay, so Jack hasn't had a heartbeat since 1949, when he was gunned down in what is now Pen's store. But the hard-boiled ghost actually remembers Hedda's dark past and Penelope is sure he can help solve this case--even if he and his license did expire more than fifty years ago...

Excerpt One:

“Keep it down, Jack," I warned. "I’m watching a movie."

“I can see that, doll. I’m just surprised Hollywood took a turn for the worse. I thought by now they’d be making new pictures, not recycling the same old lamp-lit celluloid...”

“We’re not in your day anymore, Jack. This film isn’t being recycled for lack of product. It’s part of a retrospective on the film noir genre.”

“The film WHAT genre?”

“Film noir. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it. I know you were alive when it first emerged.” I named some of the genre’s titles to jog his memory.

“Yeah, okay...” Jack admitted. “I remember seeing some of those movies, but I can’t believe twenty-first century eggheads are getting hot and bothered about a bunch of B pictures that couldn’t afford color. Fancying them up with a French name’s about on the level with your generation’s buying water in a bottle...”

Excerpt Two:

I paced the bookstore’s aisles, passing McBain and McCrumb, Paretsky and Poe, Sayers and Spillane, while considering the myriad motives for murder.

“Is the killing over now? Or just getting started?”

“Listen, baby, you can’t solve a puzzle when half the pieces are missing.”

“People guess at half-solved puzzles all the time!” I pointed out. “What about Wheel of Fortune? You can buy a vowel and sound out the words. You don’t need all the pieces.”

“That’s a game show, dollface. Guessing’s fine when you’re playing for Cracker Jack prizes, not when you’re dealing out life and death—and believe me, sweetie, I’m the voice of experience.”

“Wait a second, Jack! You’re on the other side. Dr. Lilly is, too, now. Can’t you...I don’t know, commune with the spirit world? Maybe you can get in touch with Dr. Lilly. Ask her what happened when she was alone in the store.”

“Sorry, baby, but this tomb’s all mine. Unless you take me places, I’m a prisoner in this glorified library, like some poor yegg left in Sing-Sing solitary. And as far as 'communing' with my fellow dead, nobody’s ever stuck around here to tell me squat. I wish I could call up some company, sweetheart. I can think of a few hot skirts from my past I wouldn’t mind looking up...”

Click here to purchase

Haunted Bookshop Mystery #4

The Ghost and the Femme Fatale

And coming in

January 2009...

Haunted Bookshop
Mystery #5:

THE GHOST
AND THE HAUNTED
MANSION

Alice Kimberly

Bookshop owner Penelope never believed
in ghosts – until she met the spirit of
Jack Shepard. Then Pen’s mailman,
Seymour Tarnish, gets into deep trouble,
and Pen not only believes in her ghost,
she asks him for help...

An elderly lady has been found dead on posh Larchmont Avenue, her will recently (and suspiciously) revised to name Seymour as heir to her mansion. Many eyes turn to the hapless mailman as the murderer, but Seymour doesn't care. He's too busy settling into his new digs.

Unfortunately, Seymour's new mansion appears to be haunted and when the ghosts begin plaguing him, he tries to hire a team of parapsychologists to exorcise every last spirit from the town of Quindicott. Now Pen must not only solve a murder, she must act fast to save her beloved ghost, because if these spirit zappers actually do their job, then the ghost of Jack Shepard finally will be history. And that scares Pen a lot more than rattling chains and cold spots.

Click here to

pre-order

The Ghost and

the Haunted Mansion

Combining elements of cozy mysteries with detective noir, throwing in a bit of the paranormal, this is a series that will please any mystery fan"

—The Romance Reader's Connection.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here to learn more about the Coffeehouse Mystery novels.

To purchase the books, click here.

September 8, 2008
Coffee Puts Me 2 Sleep

September 6, 2008
Manatee Coffee Company

September 5, 2008
Check out Small World Coffee

Coffeehouse
Mystery
Reading Guides

Download Now!

» Books 1 & 2, click here

» Books 3 & 4, click here

» Books 5 & 6, coming soon

WAKE UP AND SMELL...
THE CANVAS!

"I started painting with coffee because I wanted a cheaper medium that was accessible to me," says Filipino artist Sunshine Plata. A tube of oil paint costs at least 500 pesos ($11), while a jar of instant coffee is only around 150 pesos ($3). Click here to read more about Sunshine and her coffee art.

Hi there!
Cleo here.

I've finally finished my next Haunted Bookshop Mystery: THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED MANSION. The new book (written under my pen name "Alice Kimberly") is coming January 2009. Click here if you want to pre-order. Amazon has it on sale now.

You can learn more about my new book's plot by visiting my HAUNTED BOOKSHOP PAGE on this website. Just click on the dancing ghost in the left column and scroll down!
And, as always, thank you for reading! —Cleo

THE GHOST AND
THE HAUNTED
MANSION

Coming January '09

MIKE'S BEAT

CRIME FILE

» NYPD: Official Website for New York's Finest

» NY Crime File (Daily News)

» Police Blotter (NY Post)

Caffeine
Myths

A recent story by the amazing Jane Brody in The New York Times examines coffee and health, click here to read more. (I learned a lot about the myths of caffeine!)

Click here to read about a Harvard study that shows coffee's link to preventing heart disease.

Click here to read how a cup of coffee a day may offset Alzheimer's disease.

Book Lovers
Find Love!

My publisher (Penguin USA) is launching a dating website for people who read. Learn more from theBookseller.com by clicking here.

Coffee Peeps
& Peter Pans

(Real Matteo Allegros)

Shout-out to New York's Hampton Coffee Company!

Remember Murder Most Frothy? My 4th Coffeehouse Mystery gave Clare Cosi a summer job as a "coffee steward" at a posh new eatery in the Hamptons, the fabled seaside escape for New York's rich and famous. Well, here are some real coffee peeps who work hard to give the Hamptons folks a great cuppa joe. Click here to visit Hampton Coffee Co.'s site.

Click here to read about:
"Overstaying the Hamptons Party!"

A fascinating news story about "house shares" in the Hamptons and men who try to keep the postcollege "boys of summer" party going decades after their undergrad days. Shades of my character Matteo Allegro? You tell me!

3 CHEERS TO THE
LITTLE GUYS

The Washington Post reports on how the little coffee shops are thriving, even while Starbucks is in retreat. To read more, click here.

Nuke Therapy

Feeling disgusted with inflation, high gas prices, and increased pink slips while oil co. execs make record profits? Well, click here and you'll feel MUCH better! The site is the brain child of a tres clever industrial designer who himself lives in the Hamptons, Miles Jaffe, author of The Hamptons Dictionary, a hilarious handbook of class warfare: click here to read more about the book, but don't miss the Nuke the Hamptons experience. It's awesome!

BONUS RECIPES
FROM
Coffeehouse Mystery:

FRENCH PRESSED

NOW AVAILABLE!

EASY TARTE TATIN
(Upside-Down
Caramel-Apple Tart)

CREME CHANTILLY
(Fresh Whipped Cream)

PATE SUCREE
(Sweet Pastry Dough-
Can be used for any dessert tart crust)

To download all 3 of Cleo Coyle's FREE recipes
in PDF format, CLICK HERE.

Did you know COFFEE can help you grill or broil a great steak, even with an inexpensive
cut of meat?...

This recipe for Coffee-Marinated Steak was already sent to my free e-newsletter subscribers. Next month I'll post a PDF version of this recipe on the web.

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony!

Yes, like the Japanese with their tea traditions, the Ethiopians have a very special way of enjoying coffee. Click here to learn more!

BEST BARISTA
IN THE USA!

Congrats to Kyle Glanville
Winner 2008 US Barista Championship!

Kyle works for Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Los Angeles. He edged out 58 of the nation's other top baristas to become the nation's best coffee server. He also qualified to compete in the World Barista Championship in Copenhagen Denmark, which was held in June.

NOW ON SALE!

Haunted Bookshop Mystery:

THE GHOST
AND THE
FEMME FATALE

Click here

to purchase

To learn more about Cleo's Haunted Bookshop mysteries, click on the dancing ghost in the left column.

COFFEE COMPOST!

Did you know that old coffee grounds = good compost for your garden? Click here to read more. (Who knew coffee repelled slugs? Now there's a hilarious metaphor for a CM book.)

In Paris, Coffee TASTES Like Compost

Click here to read a report on the state of coffee in the center of gastronomy. "The Bitter Truth about French Coffee" by Laura Anderson.

GOOD NEWS FOR FAIR TRADE!

Fair Trade Coffee prices went up in June 2008, which means coffee farmers will be getting more money for their Arabica beans. Because so many coffee farms are located in the poorest corners of the world, this is great news.

What is Fair Trade coffee?
Click here to learn more.

(For new Fair Trade pricing Click here.)

SUSTAINABILITY vs. GROWTH

Sustainability may seem like a hippie, tree-hugger buzz word, but the recent troubles at Starbucks is a prime example of what I've seen in other industries. When executives in corporations believe "growth, growth, growth" is the chant to live by, increased profits becomes the only measuring stick within the company—and bad decision making often follows. In my own experience working in corproate America, I've seen this. I wonder if you have, too.
—Cleo

Click here to read the BusinessWeek story "Starbucks: How Growth Destroyed Brand Value"

Coffee is Culinary!

Click here to read about a master chef Marcus Samuelsson's work with a master coffee blender to pair coffee with food. Coffee as a culinary experience: Clare would approve!

Coffee Recipes!

Acclaimed chef Marcus Sameulsson created a yummy Chocolate Cinnamon Bread recipe for Starbucks. If you'd like the recipe, click here!

Coffee Dessert Recipes

The National Coffee Association has some great coffee recipes. Click here to get them.

For even more coffee recipes, click here

DOOR COUNTY COFFEE...

And for coffee recipes from DOOR COUNTY COFFEE, a family-run coffeehouse in Wisconsin, click here.

A shout-out of thanks to Mary T., a Coffeehouse Mystery fan, for mentioning her fave coffeehouse on my Coffee Talk Message Board (the green chalkboard at the top of this column)

MOOSE COFFEE AND GIFTS

Stop in and say hello to Melissa!

Thanks to CM reader Melissa for telling us about the place where she works as a barista, Moose Coffee and Gifts of Houston, Missouri. Melissa enjoys experimenting with coffee drinks. Her latest favorite is: "Espresso, steamed milk, white chocolate, caramel, and vanilla." YUM! Click here to read more about her coffeehouse.

If you have a favorite coffeehouse, coffee drink, or recipe, share it with me and my virtual Village Blend visitors! Just click on the chalk board above and post away!
—Cleo Coyle

COFFEE AND BABY FORMULA?!

I laughed out loud at this blog from Sarah Bates of Zanesville, Ohio. Click here to read how a baby changed everything for this coffee connoisseur.

—Cleo

STRANGER THAN FICTION

"Maid Cafes" of Japan

Click here to read about cafes where women dress as maids and their"geek" clientele are fighting crime by packing weapons...

Japan's Romance with Kona Coffee

Click here to read about the growing interest of Kona Coffee-drinking in Japan.

Want to Grow
Your Own
Coffee Plant?

Thanks to CM reader“Linda" for posting info about where to buy coffee plants and seeds. Click here to go to the coffee seed catalog page and scroll down. Look for the "coffea" plants listed in ITALIC alphabetically.

Coffea arabica $3.84 -12 seeds
Coffea catura $3.29 -12 seeds
Coffea kona $3.95 -12 seeds

Linda also says: "Gurney's Plant and Seed catalog has small coffee plants for $8.95 each. Click here and look for item # 11295 for coffee plants."

Coffee Health News!

Coffee May Help Prevent Ovarian Cancer

A Harvard study found women who drank 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day were 25% less likely to develop Ovarian Cancer than those who drank none. Click here to read more.

Coffee May Boost Memory
in Older Women

USA Today reports...

Women older than 65 who drank more than three cups of coffee a day — or the caffeine equivalent in tea — showed better memory retention than men, a French researcher reports. Click here to read the short USA Today report. Or click here to read a longer Scientific American article.

McDONALD'S TO OPEN McCAFE

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal's Page One story about McDonald's plan to take on Starbucks to the tune of $1 Billion. Written by Janet Adamy.

"...McDonald's added a position to its crew: barista."

"Franchisees say that many of their customers don't know what a latte is."

Cleo suggests they read

LATTE TROUBLE!

Coffee Lover Invents

"The Barista Game"

Did you know there's a new board game in which you win by making the perfect cup of coffee? Click here to read about the game designer who invented it.

TAKING COFFEE CAMPING

A friend of mine (Hi, Terri!) asked me how to brew coffee on a camping trip. I had some ideas, but this article has some even better ones! Click here for tips on brewing coffee (and even espresso) in the woods. Click here to shop for coffee-making camping gear.

Making joe for a Living...

Click here to read an interesting article about the owner and roaster of the Clarksville, Tennessee, coffeehouse Mugsy's—a favorite coffeehouse of CM reader "Kimberly," a life coach who sometimes meets clients here. Click here to go to Mugysy's website.

BIG COFFEE NEWS!

Ethiopia announces commercial culitvation of low-caffeine coffee plants! Ric Gostwick's "dream" coffee from Decaffeinated Corpse is no longer fiction! To read about this amazing breakthrough, Click here

#1 Bestselling Paperback

When the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association published its list of top selling mystery novels for July 2007, Decaffeinated Corpse made the #1 spot on the paperback list. Thank you, Coffeehouse Mystery readers. You helped to make Decaffeinated Corpse a national bestseller.

AND NOW

FOR SOME

OF CLEO'S

PAST

COFFEE PICKS...

---------------------------

SEPTEMBER '07

CLEO's COFFEE PICK
for SEPTEMBER 2007 was Magnolia Grill Blend sold by Counter Culture Coffee roasters. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

OCTOBER '07

CLEO's COFFEE PICK

for OCTOBER 2007 was Gombe Reserve sold by Green Mountain Coffee Co. and endorsed by Dr. Jane Goodall. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for youself, CLICK HERE.

NOVEMBER '07

CLEO's COFFEE PICK

for NOVEMBER 2007 was Major Dickason's Blend sold by Peet's Coffee and Tea. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

DECEMBER '07

CLEO's COFFEE PICK

for DECEMBER 2007 was 100% Kona Peaberry sold by Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

Behold the Kona Happy Dance!

JANUARY '08

CLEO's COFFEE PICK

for JANUARY 08 was Ethiopian Yirgacheffe sold by Counter Culture Coffee Company. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

FEBRUARY '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

The FEBRUARY '08 pick was Rwandan Village Blend sold by Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

MARCH '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

The MARCH '08 pick was Kenya, sold by Counter Culture Coffee, Co. and Peet's Coffee. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

APRIL '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

The April '08 pick was the amazing "Finca El Puente" from a coffee in Honduras nicknamed "Purple Princess" by the coffee director of Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, NC. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

MAY - JUNE '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

The June '08 pick was the "Jamaica Blue Mountain" of the South Pacific. An award-winning coffee grown on the exotic island of Papua New Guinea (north of Australia). To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.

JULY - AUGUST '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

The July - August '08 pick was Solar Roast Coffee of Pueblo, Colorado, the only company in the world that roasts its coffee using solar energy! Meet Dave and Mike, the two brothers who invented this one-of-a-kind solar roaster, and learn how you can purchase their delicious coffees for yourself by CLICKING HERE.

SEPTEMBER '08

CLEO'S COFFEE PICK

(To post in September...)

LAST YEAR'S
KING OF COFFEE!

British Man Crowned Champ at 2007 World Barista Championship in Tokyo!