Once Upon a Grind

When coffeehouse manager turned amateur sleuth Clare Cosi roasts “magic†beans for Fairy Tale Week, she brews up a vision that leads to a sleeping beauty in Central Park; a big, bad wolf of Wall Street; and an East Side enclave with storybook secrets. Fairy tale fever has descended on New York City. Broadway fans are flocking to Red Riding Hood: The Musical; museums are exhibiting art inspired by the Brothers Grimm; and Clare Cosi gives her coffee truck a “Jack and the Beanstalk†makeover for a Central Park festival. Clares coffee hunter ex-husband contributes a bag of African beans with alleged magical properties, and his octogenarian mother entertains customers with readings of the grinds. But Clare remains skeptical—until she receives a vision that helps her find the body of a young model in the parks woods. The police dismiss the “sleeping beauty†as the victim of a drug overdose. Then Clare uncovers evidence that points to a roster of suspects, from a wolf of Wall Street to a New York Giant and a wicked witch of the West Side. Now Clare is really in the woods—with a dangerous predator on her heels and an investigation that leads from a secret Prince Charming club right back to her own NYPD detective boyfriend. If she doesnt solve this mystery, those magic beans predict an unhappy ending.