In my worldview people read mysteries for two different reasons: they either focus on the puzzle elements or they enjoy the comedy of manners that the characters play out against the setting. I'm in the second category. I don't care much who killed whom or why, but I enjoy the interplay among the characters. If the books are in an interesting setting, so much the better. I loved Maron's Judge Deborah Knott series from the beginning. Judge Knott is a hoot, and Colleton, South Carolina, is as much a character as any of the people who live and move and have their being in its benevolent landscape. This first book in the Lt Sigrid Harald series is a straight-up police procedural. Clues are scattered around for the police and the reader to glean and try to fit together. Even when I finished, I wasn't clear which of the characters was the murderer and why the deed was done and didn't much care. It felt like an extended session of Clue. Besides I get all the NYPD police procedural action I want from watching old episodes of Law & Order from Netflix. Normally I wouldn't read further in the series, but in the Deborah Knott series, Deborah comes to New York. As a favor to a member of her extended family, she agrees to deliver a piece of art to another member of the extended family—one Lt Sigrid Harald. Since I had no sense of who Sigrid was, I wanted to come up to speed so the meeting would be more interesting. So Judge Knott is on hold while I work my way through the Lt Harald series. If you are a police procedural fan with a yen to solve puzzles, Lt Harald is for you. If you like cozies with a strong sense of setting, go for Judge Knott. It remains to be seen whether Maron can combine the two and satisfy both classes of readers. I have a strong sense that she will pull it off without a hitch.
Though the protagonist is a police detective, not an amateur sleuth, and the story is set in New York City, not a small town, this book reads like a cozy. The academic community becomes the village setting, the bickering and interplay of the staff and students just like a small town. The motive, attention to detail and nuance, spot-on characterization, and deceptively simple plot are all hallmarks of a good cozy. However it is like a police procedural in that there is a lot of plodding about and going over and over the evidence.One Coffee With is the first in the Sigrid Harald series and avoids several pitfalls common to many introductory books: The characters are well thought out and a back story is already in place and mysteriously hinted.This book is old-fashioned and dated in a way. The academic and police attitude to women appears stuck in the 1960's. Two of the female characters struggle with prejudice concerning career advancement in a way that keeps this book out of step with even the 1980's, when the book was written. Another character is so focused on having the perfect marriage one wonders how she functions. Some of the language is so dated as to be jarring.The book also manages to ignore the times in which it was written. Although set on a college campus in the largest city in the world, there is no mention of student unrest, of the war just ended, there is no homelessness, no random crime and violence, the city is clean and traffic is light. Computers and mobile phones don't exist.Overall, One Coffee With is a light and pleasant read
What do You think about One Coffee With (2005)?
This book seemed slow to start to me. It also had a huge number of characters tied to the college setting, so I had some difficulty keeping all of them straight or understanding their connection to the victim. Once the detectives were involved, the investigation proceded in an orderly fashion; and Sigrid and her partner worked well together. I recognized a couple of characters who appear in later novels of this series since I have not read these books in order. I did not like this book as much as others I have read in this series.
—Ellen Moore
I am a big fan of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series, but had never given much thought to reading the Sigrid Harald series. It just seemed too different from Deborah Knott to interest me that much. That was before I read the most recent Knott mystery, Three Day Town, in which Sigrid played a part. I found her an interesting character, one with an intriguing back story alluded to in Three Day Town.As this first novel in an eight book series was written in 1982, it was a bit like a trip back in time. No cell phones, PCs, etc. but as devices played no real part in the story, it was not particularly dated. Sigrid is a detective with the NYPD (one of the first females to reach that level) and she runs into all the male prejudices attendant, but as I don't think that has changed very much I didn't find it jarring. She is called in to investigate the poisoning of an art professor at the mythical NY City Vanderlyn College. During the course of the investigation, she meets characters who will play an important part in her life. The mystery itself is very well handled, but Maron is a much better writer today. The characters are what interested me most in One Coffee With. Sigrid herself is so blind to her own attractions, so I look forward to the development of her relationship with Oscar Naumann, Department Head at Vanderlyn. There is no doubt that I will read the rest of the series.
—Linda Baker
I have many Margaret Maron books, mostly the Deborah Knotts ones taking place in North Carolina. I once went to a lecture of hers at a book store and that started me on my collection. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get her first book, in the Sigrid Harald series set in NYC. I thoroughly enjoyed this for several reasons. She's clever, easy to read, and I can gallop through happily. This, added to a fact I graduated from a NYC City College, Hunter, as an Art Major, made this even more delightful for me to read!
—Rdonn
