What do you think?
Rate this book
Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery
House Blend
Welcome to the Barks & Beans Cafe, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java...and where murder sometimes pays a visit.
Renovations are underway on the house across the street from the Barks & Beans Cafe, but they come to a screeching halt when the decades-old bones of a missing local woman are unearthed in the basement. When house-flipper Harper shares her concern that no one will buy the place if a murder happened in it, Macy volunteers to help her new friend and do some cold case sleuthing.
As she questions those who knew the victim, Macy turns up a fresh lead. But when she makes the mistake of knocking down a retaining wall of lies, she places herself in the demolition zone with a desperate killer.
Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown...with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes.
Renovations are underway on the house across the street from the Barks & Beans Cafe, but they come to a screeching halt when the decades-old bones of a missing local woman are unearthed in the basement. When house-flipper Harper shares her concern that no one will buy the place if a murder happened in it, Macy volunteers to help her new friend and do some cold case sleuthing.
As she questions those who knew the victim, Macy turns up a fresh lead. But when she makes the mistake of knocking down a retaining wall of lies, she places herself in the demolition zone with a desperate killer.
Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown...with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes.
90 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2023
9 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Heather Day Gilbert
43 books874 followersHeather Day Gilbert, an RWA Daphne du Maurier Award-winning author and 2-time ECPA Christy Award finalist, enjoys writing contemporary mysteries/psychological thrillers and Viking historicals. She brings authentic family relationships to the page, and she particularly delights in heroines who take a stand to protect those they love. Avid readers say Heather's realistic characters—no matter what century—feel like best friends. When she's not plotting stories, this native West Virginian can often be found hanging out with her husband and four children, playing video games, or reading Agatha Christie novels.
Find out more at heatherdaygilbert.com.
Find out more at heatherdaygilbert.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 11, 2023
Note, Oct. 11, 2023: I'm just adding a hasty note to this review to state that I read it in electronic format, as an ARC I was given earlier this year by the author, who's a valued Goodreads friend. No promise of a positive review was asked for, or given!
House Blend is a short novella in Heather Day Gilbert's Barks and Beans “cozy” mystery series, set in present-day Lewisburg, West Virginia and featuring amateur sleuth (and first-person narrator) Macy Hatfield. Macy and her slightly older brother Bo operate a “petting cafe,” a coffee shop with an adjacent area where customers can interact with shelter dogs (with a view to encouraging adoptions). This particular entry takes place a couple of years after the series opener, No Filter (since there Macy's about 37, and here she turned 39 a few days before the tale opens), and would probably appeal most to people who've already read the earlier book. But it stands outside of the series numbering, so doesn't have to be read in any particular sequence as compared to the later books. It could even, possibly, serve as a sort of appetizer for the main series for “cozy” fans who are new to it (though I think the first book would be a more effective and appealing introduction). This volume does have basic information as to a couple of romantic attachments that have developed in the intervening years since the series opener –but these are really not “spoilers,” since most readers of the latter book will already have placed their bets on both pairs to become dating couples. :-)
Like most book titles in this series, this one takes a coffee-shop term and connects it to a element in the mystery. The connection here is the word “house.” Harper Pine is a “house flipper,” that is, someone who buys older houses which could benefit from a makeover, has them renovated, and sells them at a profit. Normally she lives in neighboring Virginia; but the house she's currently working with is in Lewisburg, and during her time there she's become a Barks and Beans regular. Unfortunately, the house in question proved to contain a shallowly-buried skeleton with a bashed-in skull in its basement. Back in 1989, Lewisburg gossip was set agog over the disappearance of a young, childless married woman named Delta Buckner. Local police investigated it at the time, but no leads were found; and the intervening 30+ years have left the case very cold and general interest waned to the vanishing point. In the first chapter, though, we learn that the bones have been identified as Delta's, so the missing person case is now a homicide case. Harper's concerned that an association with an unsolved murder will hurt the sales appeal of the house. She strikes up a friendship with Macy, also in the first chapter, and our heroine, being native to the community --and also being, as most readers will recognize (maybe with rolled eyes!) afflicted with, as Gabriel Betteredge in The Moonstone would say, “detective fever”-- volunteers to ask around about the lead-up to the tragedy, to see if she can unearth any clues. So, “the game is afoot.”
The book has its positives. It's a quick read (I read it in two sittings, and some readers might finish it in one), with an undemanding prose style and a strong narrative drive. (I would say that it's plot-driven rather than character-driven, but that isn't necessarily a flaw.) For those who, like myself, have read the first book, it's a chance to reconnect briefly with old friends (though Bo plays very little part in this episode). The nicely evoked small-town ambiance is a plus, and the author's love of dogs comes through. (Dog lovers may particularly appreciate this series in general, although here Macy doesn't get any canine assist in solving the mystery as she did in No Filter.) Our girl also doesn't put herself in such “too stupid to live” jeopardies as she did in the first book. She's learned to pack pepper spray instead of relying on a pocketknife; and though she thinks she's in great danger at one point, readers who actually picture the realistic physical possibilities of the situation won't be as scared for her as she is for herself. (In order to avoid spoilers, I can't be more specific!) Harper proves to be a character with unexpected depth, and was one reason I rated the book as highly as I did; as I said of Bo in the first book, I actually think she'd make a better series sleuth than Macy does.
However, there are negatives as well (though one is just the converse of a positive, and not all of them would be regarded with the same weight by all readers). As in the first book, Macy doesn't genuinely solve the mystery; the solution is unexpectedly dropped into her lap by a confession. Under the circumstances, I found it hard to believe the confession would have been made in real life; to overcome that challenge, the character of the person making it would have had to be developed in enough depth to make it seem credible for that person, and that isn't done here. Similarly, the extreme events that culminated in the killing come, as it were, out of the blue; we're told about them, but we don't know enough about Delta as a person to have expected, or to genuinely feel in our gut, that this was something that could have likely happened. (Some of my Goodreads friends who frequently run into “dual timeline” narrative structures in their reads –I have only a little experience with reading that technique myself-- call attention to the drawbacks and difficulties of that method; but I actually think that structure might have worked better here, and this author would have the chops to pull it off.) The ultra-extreme overreaction of another character with secrets to learning that another character has vague and unsubstantiated suspicions in that general area also served to drop information into Macy's lap; but it doesn't come across as realistic in any setting outside of the old America's Dumbest Criminals TV show. Both of these confessions seem like shortcuts designed to end the book quickly; and in general, the whole composition has a sort of undeveloped or minimalist feel. Short stories, despite their shortness, can be carefully crafted as well-polished and emotionally evocative jewels. This short novel lacks that jewel-like quality; it's just short, and some readers would possibly find it more rewarding if it were significantly longer, and the space used to develop the characters more deeply, and to flesh some things out. Finally, it's doubtful that the police would have failed to again contact the person who made the confession, despite having done so already back in 1989.
True, some of these criticisms are subjective; and it's also fair to note that the author is trying here to appeal to readers who actually want a very quick, light read, and who would be put off by more depth. But I have to review it from the standpoint of my own wants and likes. So, if I could give half stars here, my rating would be two and a half; I rounded up for the sake of the positives noted above.
House Blend is a short novella in Heather Day Gilbert's Barks and Beans “cozy” mystery series, set in present-day Lewisburg, West Virginia and featuring amateur sleuth (and first-person narrator) Macy Hatfield. Macy and her slightly older brother Bo operate a “petting cafe,” a coffee shop with an adjacent area where customers can interact with shelter dogs (with a view to encouraging adoptions). This particular entry takes place a couple of years after the series opener, No Filter (since there Macy's about 37, and here she turned 39 a few days before the tale opens), and would probably appeal most to people who've already read the earlier book. But it stands outside of the series numbering, so doesn't have to be read in any particular sequence as compared to the later books. It could even, possibly, serve as a sort of appetizer for the main series for “cozy” fans who are new to it (though I think the first book would be a more effective and appealing introduction). This volume does have basic information as to a couple of romantic attachments that have developed in the intervening years since the series opener –but these are really not “spoilers,” since most readers of the latter book will already have placed their bets on both pairs to become dating couples. :-)
Like most book titles in this series, this one takes a coffee-shop term and connects it to a element in the mystery. The connection here is the word “house.” Harper Pine is a “house flipper,” that is, someone who buys older houses which could benefit from a makeover, has them renovated, and sells them at a profit. Normally she lives in neighboring Virginia; but the house she's currently working with is in Lewisburg, and during her time there she's become a Barks and Beans regular. Unfortunately, the house in question proved to contain a shallowly-buried skeleton with a bashed-in skull in its basement. Back in 1989, Lewisburg gossip was set agog over the disappearance of a young, childless married woman named Delta Buckner. Local police investigated it at the time, but no leads were found; and the intervening 30+ years have left the case very cold and general interest waned to the vanishing point. In the first chapter, though, we learn that the bones have been identified as Delta's, so the missing person case is now a homicide case. Harper's concerned that an association with an unsolved murder will hurt the sales appeal of the house. She strikes up a friendship with Macy, also in the first chapter, and our heroine, being native to the community --and also being, as most readers will recognize (maybe with rolled eyes!) afflicted with, as Gabriel Betteredge in The Moonstone would say, “detective fever”-- volunteers to ask around about the lead-up to the tragedy, to see if she can unearth any clues. So, “the game is afoot.”
The book has its positives. It's a quick read (I read it in two sittings, and some readers might finish it in one), with an undemanding prose style and a strong narrative drive. (I would say that it's plot-driven rather than character-driven, but that isn't necessarily a flaw.) For those who, like myself, have read the first book, it's a chance to reconnect briefly with old friends (though Bo plays very little part in this episode). The nicely evoked small-town ambiance is a plus, and the author's love of dogs comes through. (Dog lovers may particularly appreciate this series in general, although here Macy doesn't get any canine assist in solving the mystery as she did in No Filter.) Our girl also doesn't put herself in such “too stupid to live” jeopardies as she did in the first book. She's learned to pack pepper spray instead of relying on a pocketknife; and though she thinks she's in great danger at one point, readers who actually picture the realistic physical possibilities of the situation won't be as scared for her as she is for herself. (In order to avoid spoilers, I can't be more specific!) Harper proves to be a character with unexpected depth, and was one reason I rated the book as highly as I did; as I said of Bo in the first book, I actually think she'd make a better series sleuth than Macy does.
However, there are negatives as well (though one is just the converse of a positive, and not all of them would be regarded with the same weight by all readers). As in the first book, Macy doesn't genuinely solve the mystery; the solution is unexpectedly dropped into her lap by a confession. Under the circumstances, I found it hard to believe the confession would have been made in real life; to overcome that challenge, the character of the person making it would have had to be developed in enough depth to make it seem credible for that person, and that isn't done here. Similarly, the extreme events that culminated in the killing come, as it were, out of the blue; we're told about them, but we don't know enough about Delta as a person to have expected, or to genuinely feel in our gut, that this was something that could have likely happened. (Some of my Goodreads friends who frequently run into “dual timeline” narrative structures in their reads –I have only a little experience with reading that technique myself-- call attention to the drawbacks and difficulties of that method; but I actually think that structure might have worked better here, and this author would have the chops to pull it off.) The ultra-extreme overreaction of another character with secrets to learning that another character has vague and unsubstantiated suspicions in that general area also served to drop information into Macy's lap; but it doesn't come across as realistic in any setting outside of the old America's Dumbest Criminals TV show. Both of these confessions seem like shortcuts designed to end the book quickly; and in general, the whole composition has a sort of undeveloped or minimalist feel. Short stories, despite their shortness, can be carefully crafted as well-polished and emotionally evocative jewels. This short novel lacks that jewel-like quality; it's just short, and some readers would possibly find it more rewarding if it were significantly longer, and the space used to develop the characters more deeply, and to flesh some things out. Finally, it's doubtful that the police would have failed to again contact the person who made the confession, despite having done so already back in 1989.
True, some of these criticisms are subjective; and it's also fair to note that the author is trying here to appeal to readers who actually want a very quick, light read, and who would be put off by more depth. But I have to review it from the standpoint of my own wants and likes. So, if I could give half stars here, my rating would be two and a half; I rounded up for the sake of the positives noted above.
October 6, 2023
House Blend is another excellent addition to Heather Day Gilbert's Barks & Beans Cafe series. Having read all the other books in the series, I was delighted to read this cozy mystery novella. I love cozy mysteries and the cafe's setting where one can get a cup of java and a puppy fix simultaneously is so inviting. There are action-filled tense moments that keep the pages turning and charming, capable characters--people one would like for friends--and a long-ago death to solve, what more could a cozy mystery lover ask for? I can't wait for the next book in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of the book and was not required to write a review. The opinions are my own.
I received a complimentary copy of the book and was not required to write a review. The opinions are my own.
October 7, 2023
4 stars - Read via Kindle
This is a cute, little novella that contains mystery, rescue dogs, coffee, and community. What’s not to like?
It’s a standalone but it is also connected to the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mysteries series. It is a good introduction to a series that I’d like to read from my wish list.
This is a cute, little novella that contains mystery, rescue dogs, coffee, and community. What’s not to like?
It’s a standalone but it is also connected to the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mysteries series. It is a good introduction to a series that I’d like to read from my wish list.
October 11, 2023
“They found her body-her bones-buried in the basement at that house they’re renovating across from the cafe. It looks like someone hit her in the head before she died.”
“What had Delta’s murderer been motivated by? Hatred? Love? Jealousy?”
“…it’s all in the past, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”
I always enjoy a Heather Day Gilbert book, whether it is full length or a novella like House Blend. And The Barks & Beans series keeps getting better and better as we keep meeting more characters. Harper Pine, a house flipper who was former secret service, was a great addition - I hope we see her again in a future book. This one had a nice mystery aspect and definitely didn’t solve it. It also had a nice secondary crime aspect to it. The final confession came quick since it was a novella. But like all of her mysteries, they are well plotted. Looking forward to Shade Grown in a few months.
“What had Delta’s murderer been motivated by? Hatred? Love? Jealousy?”
“…it’s all in the past, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”
I always enjoy a Heather Day Gilbert book, whether it is full length or a novella like House Blend. And The Barks & Beans series keeps getting better and better as we keep meeting more characters. Harper Pine, a house flipper who was former secret service, was a great addition - I hope we see her again in a future book. This one had a nice mystery aspect and definitely didn’t solve it. It also had a nice secondary crime aspect to it. The final confession came quick since it was a novella. But like all of her mysteries, they are well plotted. Looking forward to Shade Grown in a few months.
October 3, 2023
this is a page turning story , the house across the street is being renovated but that comes to a halt when some bones are discovered then macy and others try to find out who it was and what happened. if you like suspense and animals you will want to read the story. this is part of a series but it would be good on its own. i was given a copy of the book but this is an honest review looking forward to the next book
December 20, 2023
This standalone cozy mystery is a sampler of the fun entailed in the Barks and Beans series which features a brother-sister crime solving duo. I'm addition to the mystery, readers are delighted by the antics of various pets, both those of the main characters as well as those in need of forever homes.
The resolution of this book was both clever and satisfying. I did not see it coming which kept me on my toes throughout this short novella.
The resolution of this book was both clever and satisfying. I did not see it coming which kept me on my toes throughout this short novella.
December 29, 2023
House Blend is a standalone and is a great addition to the Barks and Beans Cafe Mystery series. Bones are found in the basement of a house that Harper, a house flipper, was renovating. The bones belongs to Delta, a woman who disappeared decades ago. Macy sets out to discover Delta's murderer.
This novella was a quick read with a side mystery and new characters.
This novella was a quick read with a side mystery and new characters.
July 7, 2024
I recently finished reading Gilbert's upcoming release Queen of Hearts, and was super excited to discover I already owned more books by her--like this one! Granted, I read it out of order (story of my life), but it was still a great intro to the Barks & Beans Cafe series (which I'm currently binge reading). A clean, quick, intriguing cozy mystery. Recommended.
March 2, 2024
I always enjoy Heather Day Gilbert books, especially the ones with Coal, the great Dane. They are clean, and lots of exciting fun. I loved Harper and wondered if she might be getting a book... because that would be awesome! 4/5 stars.
August 8, 2025
This was a fun to read mystery, the first in this series that I've read. Macy and a new friend, Harper, solve the mystery of a woman who died years ago but whose body was found buried in the basement of the house Harper is restoring. I enjoyed it.
December 9, 2023
House Blend is quick but it was so good. It was tight in its pacing and I appreciated it, I think that helped keep me glued to find out what the next twist was. I can't wait until the next book...
December 2, 2024
A quick fun read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews