No Roast for the Weary is the twenty-first Coffeehouse Mystery in our series. As our longtime readers know, our caffeinated crime fiction is often inspired by the highs and lows of our New York life. This book is no exception. Until our full-time professional writing careers kicked into gear, we spent years laboring in this big, crowded, astonishing city, working regular jobs while writing on the side, which is why we know how exhilarating and exhausting life in the arts can be. The city hasn’t changed in that regard. Creative artists continue to toil here, striving to secure a foothold on a never-ending climb. For many, gig-economy jobs pay the bills; and when the shift is over, the real work begins. While we admire all such tireless dreamers—aspiring and accomplished—this is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
For this story’s coffee inspiration, we thank Land of a Thousand Hills (landofathousandhills.com) for their superb Rwandan beans as well as their admirable work uplifting coffee farming communities. Like our Village Blend, they’re “dedicated to crafting specialty coffee that makes a difference and is delicious too.” As for other practices and procedures in this tale, we researched standard as well as atypical examples, but we also plead the author’s defense that in the service of fiction, rules occasionally get bent.
A caffeinated shout-out goes to our publisher and everyone who worked on transforming our manuscript into this beautiful book. We’re especially grateful to our brilliant editor, Tracy Bernstein, to whom this novel is dedicated. She not only held our hands throughout the writing process, suggesting good ideas to strengthen our work, but did so with humor and grace.
We applaud our talented cover artist Cathy Gendron for creating another gorgeous Coffeehouse Mystery cover (her twenty-first, too) and our literary agent, John Talbot, for his many years of unwavering support and consummate professionalism.
Finally, we extend our gratitude to those we could not mention by name, including friends, family, and so many of you who read our books and send us notes via email, our website’s message board, and social media. Your encouragement always lifts our spirits, and we cannot thank you enough for that. Whether you are new to our world or a devoted reader, we invite you to join our Coffeehouse community at coffeehousemystery.com, where you will find bonus recipes, our latest book news, and a link to keep in touch by signing up for our newsletter. May you eat, drink, and read with joy!
—Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini
aka Cleo Coyle, New York City