Coffeehouse Doughnut Muffins + Freebies for You and Your Book Club from Cleo Coyle

It’s the end of Book Club Week at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and I'm happy to send a final shout-out to all the book clubs who've given our books literary love. Cheers to you!

Cleo Coyle has a partner in

crime-writing—her husband.

Learn about their books

by clicking here and here.

If your book club plans to feature a Coffeehouse Mystery or Haunted Bookshop Mystery, I would love to know. Drop me a line at my public e-mail box: 

CoffeehouseMystery(at)gmail(dot)com 

And if you're new to this site or our series, scroll down to my FAQC (Frequently Asked Questions of Cleo)...

* * * * * *

Now a bestseller in
paperback! To learn
more, click here.

BESTSELLER NEWS!

THANKS to our wonderful readers! After a year on sale in hardcover, e-book, audio, and Mystery Guild editions, you helped the newly released paperback edition of our 15th Coffeehouse Mystery, DEAD TO THE LAST DROP, hit the TOP 20 Bestseller List among all mass market paperback books sold at Barnes and Noble (week of Sept. 20th).

THANK YOU, READERS!

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FAQC 


Frequently Asked Questions of Cleo

1) Question: Which of your books should I read first?

Answer: There are 15 books in our bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery series, with the two most recent (#14) Once Upon a Grind and (#15) Dead to the Last Drop now available in paperback. 

Our 16th Coffeehouse Mystery, Dead Cold Brew, will be released by Penguin Random House in hardcover this January. But you don’t have to read our series in order. Each stands alone and focuses on a different theme. So choose what appeals to you...

CLICK HERE OR BELOW FOR THE FREE PDF OF...

A CHECKLIST OF TITLES WITH BOOKS IN ORDER,  

STORY SUMMARIES, AND FREE RECIPE GUIDES!

Download a Free Title Checklist for

all 15 Coffeehouse Mysteries

(with mini plot summaries)
by clicking here

2) Q: Is there a website with the order of your titles?

A: Yes! To see a website with our books in order and other fun info, simply click here and scroll down.

3) Q: Do you have Reading Group Guides for my book club?

A: Yes! You can download free Book Club Discussion Questions for many of our books at our Reading Group Guide page, just click here. 

4) Q: What are your books about?

A: My husband and I have been living and working in New York City for three decades, and our Coffeehouse Mysteries—a unique blend of crime, humor, action, and romance—are set in and around the Village Blend, a landmark coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. The coffeehouse is managed by Clare Cosi, a divorced, single mom who continually finds herself mixed up in murder. View the series trailer by clicking the arrow in the window below...

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5) Q. Who else is in the cast besides Clare?

A. Clare Cosi is often assisted in her city-wide sleuthing with a colorful cast of characters. 

Click here to visit their avatar page and read about them in their own words. In brief, they include...

Madame Dreyfus-Allegro-Dubois, the octogenarian owner of the century-old Village Blend...

Her adult son, Matt Allegro, a globe-trotting coffee hunter...

A quirky family of young baristas, whom Clare not only manages but often mothers, and...

A good man and smart cop, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, who becomes emotionally involved with Clare over the course of the series.

6) Q: Are your books available in audio?

A: Yes! You can see the entire line in CD and audio download format here on Downpour and on Amazon here and in iTunes here (scroll all the way down to see the audiobooks). They’re produced by AudioGo (BBC America Audiobooks) and distributed by our new audio partner, Blackstone Audio.

7) Q: What book would you select for a book club discussion?

A: DEAD TO THE LAST DROP is the most recent Coffeehouse Mystery to be published, and the themes explored in this mystery are both timely and timeless for book club discussions.

Even better, when your book club is finished reading, you can take the "Book Detective" Quiz to see how well you remember the events from this fast-paced, entertaining story. To start the quick, click the words below...

START THE QUIZ!

In the meantime...

To take a peek at the book's
recipe section (with foodie photos),
click here or on the image below.

Dead to the Last Drop 

is a culinary mystery with 

more than 25 delicious recipes! 

See the free illustrated 

Recipe Guide by clicking here.

Cleo Coyle’s 
Coffee Shop 
Doughnut Muffins

Delicious muffins are always on the menu at our fictional Village Blend, the century-old coffeehouse in New York's picturesque Greenwich Village.

Clare bakes up these amazing Doughnut Muffins in our 9th entry, Roast Mortem (a murder mystery about arson that's also a tribute to firefighters). Tender and sweet, these muffins are dusted with cinnamon sugar and one bite will remind you of an old-fashioned cake doughnut, the kind you might order at a diner counter with a hot cuppa joe. 

These Doughnut Muffins would make a fantastic snack for any book club. Served with coffee, tea, or cocoa, they'll make your discussion of Clare Cosi's latest case even more cozy. :)

Makes 12 standard-size muffins 

For the batter:

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten with fork

1 cup whole milk 

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

2-½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the cinnamon-sugar topping:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Step 1—Prep your oven and pan: First preheat your oven to 350° F. This recipe bakes up nice, coffee shop-sized muffins with generous tops, so lightly spray the tops of your muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray. This will prevent the tops from sticking to the pan. Line the muffin cups with paper holders.

Step 2—Make the batter: Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and milk and continue mixing. Stop the mixer. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg and mix only enough to combine ingredients. Batter will be thick. Do not over mix at this stage or you will develop the gluten in the flour and toughen the muffins.

Step 3—Bake: Using two tablespoons (one to scoop, the other to scrape in the thick batter), fill each cup to the top, dividing any remaining batter among the 12 cups.

Bake for 20-25 min­utes, or until the muffin tops spring back lightly when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. After a few minutes out of the oven, remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack. (Muffins that remain long in a hot pan may end up steaming, and the bottoms may become tough.)

Step 4—Finish with cinnamon-sugar topping: Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Melt the butter, brush it lightly over the muffin tops...

Roll the buttery tops in the bowl of cinnamon-sugar.

Eat (and read) with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Yes, this is me, Cleo (aka Alice). 

Friend me on facebook here.

Follow me on twitter here. 

Visit my online coffeehouse here.

BOOK CLUB FREEBIES!

Download free Coffeehouse
Book Club Discussion Guides
by clicking here.

* * *

Our bestselling hardcover is

now a bestseller in paperback!

Coffee. It can get a girl killed.

Amazon * B&N

IndieBound

A Mystery Guild Selection

A Baker & Taylor "Trends" Pick

Three "Best of Year" Reviewer Lists

*  *  *

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling

works of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark

Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the

15 titles includes the added bonus of recipes. 

GET A FREE TITLE CHECKLIST

OF BOOKS IN ORDER

(with mini plot summaries)

by clicking here.

* * * 

Marc and I also write

The Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

Get a free title checklist, 

with mini plot summaries, 

by clicking here.

Or learn more about the 

books and meet Jack Shepard, 

our PI ghost by clicking here.

* * * 

Sign up for Cleo Coyle's 

Coffeehouse Newsletter: Recipes, 

News, Fun Contests, Videos... 

Click here to subscribe.