[Poll Book Tally] Decaffeinated Corpse by Cleo Coyle

[Karin]

Botanical pedants be warned.

Yes, there is murder back in town and once again Cleo Coyle is investigating. You can read the blurb for more about this. However, be prepared for some misinformation. I tend to get a bit glassy eyed at the long descriptions of coffee beans and blends since I don't drink coffee, but I have assumed that Coyle has done her research, and she has, but I am no longer sure how accurate this information is. Lo and behold, as I was whipping through a section on the coffee shrub (not a tree and this is correct) I came across 1. a misspelling and 2. wrong information on very, very basic botanical information that you learn at the very lowest level in university biology and, I think it is also included in high school biology. Granted, this is not an every day term (hey, Pete, did you see that dicotyledon over there?). But of course, you wouldn't. You'd refer to it as a dicot for short, but even then that would be silly and you'll see that shortly in the next paragraphy after I point out one other thing first. First of all, there was a g inserted--when I did a search online and could only find the real spelling I did a minus sign in front of it to see if this is an obscure word but the one thing that showed up was this book.

So, fine, one type, big deal. But wait, there's more. She then gives a wrong definition about what it means--I'll let you read it to find out. What she doesn't tell you is that it is very common--all it means is that the little seed sprouts with two leaves (no need for the technical term those are called). The other kind with only one seed leaf are Monocotyledons. I have no idea which is more common, but in my yard all of the monocots are grasses and everything I plant that isn't grass is a dicot, including the weeds. I studied animal biology so am not an expert in botany. How do you pronounce this word? That all depends on which country you attended university. My husband and I laughed like crazy at the silly way the other one said it--I studied biology in a Canadian university and he studied forestry at an American one--both respected schools with erudite professors.

This led me to research another premise. In this book some man has developed the first caffeine free coffee plant (correctly called a shrub in the book, so Coyle didn't get it all wrong), but IRL there really are a few caffeine free varieties of coffee shrubs that occure naturally, but evidently not enough to avoid taking caffeine laden beans and treating them to get rid of the caffeine.

Yes, I gave it 3 stars despite this shocking discovery (will I ever be the same again ;)? ), because had I not known this, I'd have liked this installment at a full three stars. After all, I read scifi and there is plenty of imagination thrown into much of those books, and TV is rife with less-than-factual facts to make riveting or funny shows.