Murder by mocha
Clare Cosi, manager of Greenwich Village's landmark Village Blend, has licensed her beans to a new product with an outsized promise: Mocha Magic Coffee, a love potion in a cup, sold exclusively through Aphrodite's Village, one of the web's most popular online communities for women. The launch party is a coup for the Blend until one of the site's editors turns up dead.
When more of the site's Sisters of Aphrodite begin to die, Clare stops believing in coincidence. Someone wants the coffee's secret formula badly enough to kill for it, and the closer Clare gets to the truth, the more the trail winds back through the company's boardroom and its cheerfully ruthless staff.
Running underneath the case are the things Clare cannot delegate: her daughter Joy, newly home from France with troubles of her own, and Detective Mike Quinn, up to his neck in a police corruption scandal. As always, Cleo Coyle closes the book with recipes and coffee-brewing tips from the Blend.
Manager and head barista of the Village Blend, and an incorrigible amateur sleuth.
NYPD detective and Clare's partner, tied up in a police corruption case.
The Village Blend's owner and Clare's ex-mother-in-law.
Clare's daughter, recently returned from culinary work in France.