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 Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group. History Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Company" by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had worked for Avon; they quickly renamed it Berkl ...

), a series of cozy mysteries set in and around a fictional

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.

Biography

Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini both grew up with Italian parents in working-class neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Alfonsi graduated from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cerasini graduated from Ohio University in

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city and the county seat of Athens County, Ohio. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Athens is best known as the home of Ohio Universit ...

. In New York, Alfonsi worked as a journalist and book author; Cerasini as a magazine editor,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and fiction and nonfiction author. The couple met in Manhattan and married at the

Little Church of the West Little Church of the West is a wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Built of redwood, it was intended to be a replica of a typical pi ...

in Las Vegas. They live in New York City. Alfonsi was the ghostwriter for '' Hidden Passions'', a

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of the NBC soap opera '' Passions'', which spent seven weeks on the 2001 '' New York Times'' hardcover fiction bestsellers list. Cerasini has written four novels in the '' 24: Declassified'' series of original Jack Bauer adventures based on the

Fox TV The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

series '' 24''. He also wrote two original novels for Marvel Comics featuring Wolverine. 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 A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Alice Kimberly and later published under their Cleo Coyle name.Cozy Library profiles, Alice Kimberly/Cleo Coyle
/ref> The paranormal cozy mystery series is set in and around an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...

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, ) *''Through the Grinder'' (2004, ) *''Latte Trouble'' (2005, ) *''Murder Most Frothy'' (2006, ) *''Decaffeinated Corpse'' (2007, ) *''French Pressed'' (2008, ) *''Espresso Shot'' (2008, ) *''Holiday Grind'' (2009, ) *''Roast Mortem'' (2010, ) *''Murder by Mocha'' (2011, ) *''A Brew to a Kill'' (August 2012, ) *''Holiday Buzz'' (November 2012, ) *''Billionaire Blend'' (December, 2013, ) *''Once Upon a Grind'' (December, 2014, ) *''Dead to the Last Drop'' (December, 2015, ) *''Dead Cold Brew'' (January, 2017, ) *''Shot In the Dark'' (April, 2018, ) *''Brewed Awakening'' (December 2019, ) *''Honey Roasted'' (January 2022, )

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

External links

Official website''Gumshoe Review'' interview with Alice AlfonsiHarperCollins bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coyle, Cleo 21st-century American novelists Writers from Pittsburgh American mystery writers American women novelists Women mystery writers 21st-century American women writers Novelists from Pennsylvania