Cleo Coyle

Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini

Cleo Coyle is the pen name for American mystery writers Alice Alfonsi in collaboration with her husband Marc Cerasini, best-known for the Coffeehouse Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime), a series of cozy mysteries set in and around a fictional coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. ^[1]

Biography

Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini both grew up with Italian parents in working-class neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ^[2] Alfonsi graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cerasini graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. In New York, Alfonsi worked as a journalist and book author; Cerasini as a magazine editor, literary critic and fiction and nonfiction author. The couple met in Manhattan and married at the Little Church of the West in Las Vegas. ^[3] They live in New York City.

Alfonsi was the ghostwriter for Hidden Passions , a novelization of the NBC soap opera Passions , ^[4] which spent seven weeks on the 2001 New York Times hardcover fiction bestsellers list. ^{[5] [6]} Cerasini has written four novels in the 24: Declassified series of original Jack Bauer adventures based on the Fox TV series 24 . He also wrote two original novels for Marvel Comics featuring Wolverine. ^[7] His nonfiction includes The Future of War: The Face of 21st Century Warfare (Alpha Books, 2003).

Among their co-authored projects are the Haunted Bookshop mysteries (Penguin Group), originally written under the pen name Alice Kimberly and later published under their Cleo Coyle name. ^[8] The paranormal cozy mystery series is set in and around an independent bookstore in Rhode Island, and features the ghost of a hardboiled PI from the 1940s who helps the modern-day bookshop owner solve crimes.

Novels

The Coffeehouse Mystery Series

• On What Grounds (2003, ISBN   0-425-19213-X)
• Through the Grinder (2004, ISBN   0-425-19714-X)
• Latte Trouble (2005, ISBN   0-425-20445-6)
• Murder Most Frothy (2006, ISBN   0-425-21113-4)
• Decaffeinated Corpse (2007, ISBN   978-0-425-21638-5)
• French Pressed (2008, ISBN   978-0-425-22049-8)
• Espresso Shot (2008, ISBN   978-0-425-22177-8)
• Holiday Grind (2009, ISBN   978-0-425-23005-3)
• Roast Mortem (2010, ISBN   978-0-425-23459-4)
• Murder by Mocha (2011, ISBN   978-0-425-24143-1)
• A Brew to a Kill (August 2012, ISBN   978-0-425-24787-7)
• Holiday Buzz (November 2012, ISBN   978-0-425-25535-3)
• Billionaire Blend (December, 2013, ISBN   978-0-425-25291-8)
• Once Upon a Grind (December, 2014, ISBN   978-0-425-27085-1)
• Dead to the Last Drop (December, 2015, ISBN   978-0-425-27609-9)
• Dead Cold Brew (January, 2017, ISBN   978-0-425-27611-2)
• Shot In the Dark (April, 2018, ISBN   978-0-451-48884-8)
• Brewed Awakening (December 2019, ISBN   978-0451488879)
• Honey Roasted (January 2022, ISBN   978-0593197561)
• Bulletproof Barista (November 2023, ISBN   978-0593197615)

The Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series

• The Ghost and Mrs. McClure
• The Ghost and the Dead Deb
• The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library
• The Ghost and the Femme Fatale
• The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion
• The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller
• The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait
• The Ghost and the Stolen Tears
• The Ghost Goes to the Dogs

Citations

1. "Interview: Cleo Coyle (Alice Alfonsi & Marc Cerasini)".
2. Library Journal on Cleo Coyle
3. "Cozy Library profile of Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle]". Archived from the original on 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
4. Article on Hidden Passions
5. New York Times adult hardcover fiction best sellers list 2001
6. Bestsellers, 2-26-2001
7. Interview with Marc Cerasini on the Wolverine novels
8. Cozy Library profiles, Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle

External links

• Official website
• Gumshoe Review interview with Alice Alfonsi
• HarperCollins bio