NO ROAST FOR THE WEARY

In trying to revive her failing coffee shop, a woman uncovers murders past and present.

Clare Cosi manages the Village Blend, an iconic Greenwich Village coffee shop, with her former mother-in-law, Madame Blanche Dreyfus Allegro DuBois, the original owner, and her ex-husband, Matteo Allegro, who travels the world in search of specialty coffee beans. A new customer, who says to call him Mr. Scrib, spends hours in the upstairs lounge writing in a notebook until he has a manic episode ending in hospitalization. Bent on enticing more customers, the staff comes up with the idea of reviving the use of the lounge as a writing retreat. The Writer’s Block, as it was once known, was a great success until it became the location of an unsolved murder. One evening while Clare is talking to Madame, noises in the alley draw them out—where they see someone attacking Mr. Scrib, apparently seeking his notebook. A furious Clare chases the miscreant, is hit by an electric scooter, and awakens in the arms of her fiance, NYPD Lieutenant Mike Quinn. A hospital wristband reveals that Mr. Scrib is really Jensen Van Dyne, a member of the original writing group from a period Madame does not like to talk about. Clare, who has a long history of solving murders, is determined to research the people involved, at least one of whom is now a famous author and a friend of Madame’s. To add to her stress, she sees Matt having a secret meeting with their nemesis, Cody Wood, whose national chain sells inferior coffee. Several of the clues she unearths from the past lead her to spend time in the rarified air of New York’s rich and famous seeking a killer.

An interesting puzzle infused with Big Apple attitude.