by Cleo Coyle
First published 2015
Clare Cosi brings her coffee expertise to Washington when the White House requests her services for a Rose Garden wedding. The coffeehouse manager and master roaster settles into a Georgetown mansion with her elderly employer and begins collaborating with a Smithsonian curator on an exhibit celebrating American coffee culture. Her new Village Blend DC location struggles financially until a jazz club on the second floor draws the President's daughter as a regular customer. Clare gains access to powerful circles when the First Lady takes an interest in her work. Then a State Department worker collapses mysteriously in her shop. The President's daughter vanishes, leaving Clare to wonder if she fled her upcoming wedding or met with foul play. Another death forces Clare to flee with her NYPD detective boyfriend. Labeled a threat to national security, she races to solve the mystery while dodging federal agents. The investigation leads back to a historic coffee pot that once served as a CIA dead drop, its buried secrets now threatening everyone around Clare.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary, adult, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, engaging, fast-paced, intriguing, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, fish-out-of-water, found-family, high-stakes-mystery
Setting: Washington, D.C., White House, Rose Garden, Georgetown, Village Blend DC, Smithsonian
Period: 21st century, contemporary
435 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Publishing Group
Content warnings: death, murder