A BREW TO A KILL

A rivalry between food trucks becomes a deadly affair.

Clare Cosi (Murder By Mocha, 2011, etc.) has invested a lot of money in the Village Blend’s Muffin Muse coffee truck. So she’s not happy to be harassed by a rival whose Kupcake Kart truck parks in front of Clare’s coffeehouse. Although the rival is run off, the night turns deadly when Clare’s friend Lilly Beth is run down by a van in front of the store. The police call it attempted murder, but although Clare does all she can to solve the crime, it may be the least of her troubles. A recent trip to Brazil has netted her ex-husband Matt, her partner and coffee buyer for the Village Blend, not only some superb new coffee beans, but the enmity of a crack dealer who made Matt an offer he did refuse. Clare and Matt’s visit to the warehouse for more beans leads to the discovery of crack hidden in the shipment and their arrest by DEA agents. Luckily, Clare’s main squeeze, NYPD drug specialist Mike Quinn, has the connections to set them free. Clare gets a full-time bodyguard posing as a waiter, but now she and the police must decide if she was the real target of the hit-and-run, which may have been part of a series. Politics, business rivalries, drugs—with so many possibilities, it won’t be easy to solve this case.

A foodie’s delight, packed with information on coffee and desserts, along with appended recipes and a satisfyingly rich mystery.