by Cleo Coyle
Part of Coffeehouse Mystery
First published 2011
Clare Cosi is pulled from a burning café by New York City firefighters and walks away grateful. She returns the favor by showing the crew how to work their new espresso machine, a donation they have no idea how to use. Then cafés start burning across the city and firefighters start dying under circumstances that look anything but accidental. Clare is convinced the fires and the deaths are connected. She works the case herself, staking out a five-borough bake sale and tracking down leads in the pizza kitchens of Brooklyn. The investigation gets personal when her boyfriend, NYPD detective Mike Quinn, gets hit with a false accusation that threatens to derail everything. Clare has always been the one who needs rescuing. Now she is the one racing to save someone else, while whoever is behind the fires turns their attention toward her. The book includes bonus recipes drawn from real firehouse cooking.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: action-driven, atmospheric, engaging, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, false-accusation, personal-stakes, protective-romance
Setting: New York City, Brooklyn, Five Boroughs
Period: 21st-century, contemporary
350 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: death, murder, violence