by Cleo Coyle
Part of Coffeehouse Mystery
First published 2007
Clare Cosi manages the Village Blend in Greenwich Village and knows good coffee the way other people know their own names. When her ex-husband's old friend turns up with something extraordinary, a coffee bean that has been botanically decaffeinated, the first of its kind in the world, Clare sees a genuine business opportunity. The bean was smuggled into the country, which should have been a warning sign. It isn't, at least not right away. Then a body appears. Suddenly Clare is tangled up in something far bigger than a new product launch. The decaf bean represents serious money and serious ambition, and someone is willing to kill to control it. Clare has to figure out who, and why, before the body count grows. She is not a detective. She runs a coffee shop. But she asks questions the way she pulls espresso shots, carefully and without stopping. The book moves between the warm, grounded world of the Blend and something considerably more dangerous underneath it. Clare's instinct for quality, in coffee and in people, is what keeps her going and what keeps putting her at risk.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, adult-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, fast-paced, grounded, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, ordinary-person-in-danger, reluctant-investigator
Setting: Greenwich Village, Village Blend
Period: 21st-century, contemporary
262 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: murder, violence