Entertaining mystery involving drug smugglers, street rap, city politics, and a Scooby-Doo ending, plus lots of food and good coffee, and recipes for baked goods, Italian food and Filipino food. ( )

Entertaining mystery involving drug smugglers, street rap, city politics, and a Scooby-Doo ending, plus lots of food and good coffee, and recipes for baked goods, Italian food and Filipino food. ( )

This is the ninth book in the Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle. I missed all the books before it and I am positive that I would have liked this book much better if I have read the first eight books. I don't think that is fares well as a standalone book. I love coffee and thought that might make up for what I missed but there were too many characters to know all at once and I really felt I wanted to know their history more.

I did enjoy the parts that included Chinatown and the Chinese characters were believable to me. I loved the nasty competitor Kaylie Crimini who owns the Kupcake Kart and adds bacon grease to some of her cupcakes for flavor. She tried to be French in the way she pronounced the names of the cupcakes and the prepared the cupcakes with incredible amounts of cholesterol. She was the highlight for me. She was a person who could drive anyone nuts.

I got lost when the drug part was added to the story. I loved that Claire, the main character was branching out into a food trucks, and when the story veered over into Chinatown but it got to be too much for me to keep straight. I really think if I knew the characters history, I would not have been so lost. There were also red herrings galore but I was already lost by then.

My recommendation would to be to start with the first book in this series so that you won’t feel lost like I did. ( )

A good book, except for the Mike and Claire issue towards the end. I also didn't appreciate the Matt twist although it added to the book. Good series. ( )

A little predictable but I like the characters.