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ROAST MORTEM
by Cleo Coyle
Berkley, August 2010
368 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0425234592


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

We know from the outset that there will be arson. The question: who is the arsonist? where will he or she strike? what is the motive?

The "where" is soon resolved. Clare Cosi and her ex-mother-in-law, Madame Dreyfus Allegro Dubois (a really charming character) go to Astoria, NY, to Caffe Lucia, a coffeehouse owned by Enzo Testa, whom Madame has known for years. Madame and Testa repair to the cellar to look over old photographs. As luck would have it, they are sealed in the cellar when the arsonist strikes. Firefighters are soon on the scene, and Clare implores them to break down the almost impenetrable wall to release her two friends. When the pair are rescued, Madame quickly recovers, but Testa is left comatose.

Clare suspects Lucia, Testa's daughter, who is desperate for her father to retire and turn the restaurant over to her so that she can sell it. However, very soon the arsonist bombs another coffeehouse in Bensonhurst, and not long after a coffeehouse that is part of a chain.

Clare and Madame Dubois are worried that their coffeehouse, Village Blend, will be next on the list, especially after they receive a package with a box of unlit matches inside.

The next complication occurs when two firefighters die under suspicious circumstances.

So Clare has to solve two crimes -- the fires and the deaths. At the same time, she is involved in a love rectangle: clearly her ex still has feelings for her: Captain Michael Quinn, a firefighter is both smitten and unpleasantly aggressive; his cousin, Mike Quinn, is Clare's current beau, to whom she is committed.

Coyle has an excellent sense of pace. The dreadful scenes of arson are often leavened with the banter of the firefighters, Mrs Quadrelli is introduced for comic relief, as she fantasizes that she and Enzo Testa will retire together to Italy (he can't stand her).

Coyle is skilled at defining each character, though I can't figure out why two main characters are named Michael. (After all, the Irish have vivid imaginations -- cf. four Nobel laureates in literature).

Since I haven't had a cup of coffee in forty years (allergy to caffeine), I can't vouch for the veracity of the information about espresso, but it certainly has the ring of truth.

Anyone who isn't already filled with admiration for the heroism of firefighters will certainly come away with appreciation of the bravery of these men and women.

§ Mary Elizabeth Devine taught English Literature for 35 years, is co-author of five books about customs and manners around the world and lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, August 2010

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