Death By Coffee

When Krissy Hancock and her best friend Vicki decide to open a bookstore café in their new town of Pine Hills, they decide to call it "Death by Coffee," after Krissy’s father’s most famous mystery novel. Little do they know how well the name fits… On their very first day of business, Brendon Lawyer huffily takes his coffee…to the grave. It seems he had a severe allergy to peanuts…but how could there have been nuts in his coffee? And who stole his emergency allergy medication? Fortunately, Krissy’s love of puzzles and mysteries leads her not only to Officer Paul Dalton, but also to many of her new neighbors, who aren’t terribly upset that the book is closed on Brendon. But one of them is a killer, and Krissy needs to read between the lies if she wants to save her new store—and live to see how this story ends…

Krissy Hancock and her pals are taking a coffee break—leaving their bookstore-café in Pine Hills, Ohio, and heading to a convention. But this road trip will be more dangerous than they expected … Coffee lovers are gathering from far and wide at the hotel, and Krissy, Rita, and Vicki are excited. But some of the attendees may need to switch to decaf, as a public argument breaks out soon after they check in and then a flavor competition leads to bitter feelings. When the winner of the contest is beaned with a carafe full of café mocha, suspicions swirl—along with accusations of bribery. Was the dead man offering perks to the judges—or was something sinister going on in his personal life? This case is going to keep Krissy up all night long …

This sociological work examines the phenomenon of the Death Café, a regular gathering of strangers from all walks of life who engage in “death talk” over coffee, tea, and desserts. Using insightful theoretical frameworks, Fong explores the common themes that constitute a “death identity” and reveals how Café attendees are inspired to live in light of death because of death. Fong examines how the participants’ embrace of self-sovereignty and confrontation of mortality revive their awareness of and appreciation for shared humanity. While divisive identity politics continue to foster neo-tribalisms and the construction of myriad “others,” Fong makes visible how those who participate in Death Cafés end up building community while being inspired toward living more fulfilling lives. Through death talk unfettered from systemic control, they end up feeling more agency over their own lived lives as well as being more conscious of the possibility of a good death. According to Fong, participants in this phenomenon offer us a sublime way to confront the facticity of our own demise—by gathering as one.

Krissy Hancock runs a bookstore-café in Pine Hills, Ohio, but she’ll be setting up shop as a sleuth when she discovers a long-unsolved murder . . . Krissy’s helping a friend clean out her late mother’s house when she learns that although the deceased died peacefully at an advanced age, her brother did not. In fact, Wade was killed more than thirty years ago, and the case was never closed. What surprises Krissy even more is that she has a personal connection to the story—her friend Rita was seeing Wade at the time, scandalizing the town with the couple’s large age difference. With an older Rita now part of Krissy’s writing group—and another member with police experience—she starts digging up gossip, talking to the victim’s local coffee klatsch, and trying to find real clues amid the old rumors. But things just seem to grow muddier as she fights to identify whodunit . . .

International comics sensation and opera star Too Much Coffee Man returns to the printed page! Collecting acclaimed cartoonist Shannon Wheeler's musings on modern life, "Cutie Island" brings together Too Much Coffee Man and a host of other characters into one neuroses-packed volume! A new cartoon collection from the mind of Eisner Award-winning, Harvey-nominated, and current "New Yorker" cartoonist, Shannon Wheeler! Too Much Coffee Man, the long-underwear-clad hero, returns to the printed page in his first new adventures since having his life remade in opera form. Wheeler remains one of the best satirists of a generation, lending a hilariously cynical eye to Too Much Coffee Man's struggle to make sense of the ever-changing modern world--with a space-octopus thrown in for good measure, of course.

Sara Sinclair might be a Blue Dragon ice princess, but she certainly doesn’t act like one. And she definitely doesn’t buy into the Blue Dragon Clan’s crap that says marriage should focus on alliances and power. So Sara’s furious when her Blue parents sign a contract for her to marry an absolute asshat. She has zero interest in being one half of a snobby Blue power couple—especially when she’d rather bite her obnoxious fiancé’s head off and bury it in the garden. There’s also the small problem of Ian McKenna, a fire-breathing Red Dragon who is everything her fiancé is not. Of course, dating Ian is forbidden. Getting involved with anyone outside of your Clan is against Directorate law. Ian could be thrown in jail or executed without a trial. But now that she knows what love feels like, how could she ever marry someone else? Now the only way Ian and Sara can be together is by giving up their dragon way of life. No flying. No magic. No family or friends. And if Sara knows anything, it’s that stories like this never turn out well...

A fancy Halloween party turns fatal in this mystery that’s “so much fun to read” (Suspense Magazine). Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock would rather spend Halloween serving pumpkin goodies than wearing costumes with Pine Hills’ wealthiest, especially when the soiree at a local mansion shapes up to be more trick than treat. As if a run-in with an old flame and a failed marriage proposal weren’t enough to horrify Krissy for one night, a woman is found strangled to death in a room filled with ominous jack-o’-lanterns. All signs suggest a crime of passion—but when the hostess’s jewelry disappears, malevolent intentions seem way more likely. With the estate on lockdown and a killer roaming the halls, Krissy must help Officer Paul Dalton investigate each nook, cranny, and guest for answers—while also confronting a few demons of her own. Someone has lots of skeletons in the closet, and Krissy better tread lightly to expose them…

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • The ultimate guide to choosing ingredients, developing your palate, mixing drinks, and leveling up your home cocktail game—with more than 600 recipes—from the bestselling team behind Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails and James Beard Book of the Year Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions “The mad geniuses behind Death & Co have elevated cocktail creation to punk-rock artistry. This dazzling book brings their brilliance home.”—Aisha Tyler IACP AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST COCKTAIL BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Minneapolist Star Tribune, Slate Imagine you’re a rookie bartender and this is your handbook. Your training begins with a boot camp of sorts, where you follow the same path a Death & Co bartender would to discover your own palate and preferences, learn how to select ingredients, understand what makes a great cocktail work, and mix drinks like an old pro. Then it’s time to invite your friends over to show off the batched and ready-to-pour mixtures you stored in the freezer so you could enjoy your guests instead of making drinks all night. More than 600 recipes anchor the book, including classics, low-ABV and nonalcoholic cocktails, and hundreds of signature creations developed by the Death & Co teams in New York, Los Angeles, and Denver. With hundreds of evocative photographs and illustrations, this comprehensive, visually arresting manual is destined to break new ground in home bars across the world—and make your next get-together the invite of the year.

'Extraordinary. It is about death, but I can think of few books which have such life. It shows us what love is.' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing With Feathers and Lanny 'There is no one quite like Naja Marie Aidt' Valeria Luiselli 'Devastating, angry, challenging, fragmented and filled with the beautiful hope that the love we have for people continues into the world even after they're gone.' Culturefly 'Fragmented, poetic, informative and truthful, Aidt faces the greatest loss we can ever know with all the force of great elegy writers like Anne Carson and Denise Riley. Essential.' Polly Clark, author of Larchfield and Tiger _______ "I raise my glass to my eldest son. His pregnant wife and daughter are sleeping above us. Outside, the March evening is cold and clear. 'To life!' I say as the glasses clink with a delicate and pleasing sound. My mother says something to the dog. Then the phone rings. We don't answer it. Who could be calling so late on a Saturday evening?" In March 2015, Naja Marie Aidt's 25-year-old son, Carl, died in a tragic accident. When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back is about losing a child. It is about formulating a vocabulary to express the deepest kind of pain. And it's about finding a way to write about a reality invaded by grief, lessened by loss. Faced with the sudden emptiness of language, Naja finds solace in the anguish of Joan Didion, Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Mallarmé, Plato and other writers who have suffered the deadening impact of loss. Their torment suffuses with her own as Naja wrestles with words and contests their capacity to speak for the depths of her sorrow. This palimpsest of mourning enables Naja to turn over the pathetic, precious transience of existence and articulates her greatest fear: to forget. The insistent compulsion to reconstruct the harrowing aftermath of Carl's death keeps him painfully present, while fragmented memories, journal entries and poetry inch her closer to piecing Carl's life together. Intensely moving and quietly devastating, this is what is it to be a family, what it is to love and lose, and what it is to treasure life in spite of death's indomitable resolve.

PREORDER YOUR COPY OF BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS, the fifth book in the best-selling and much loved series, NOW! *NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER* *OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD* *AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time? Meet more wonderful characters in the rest of the captivating Before the Coffee Gets Cold series: Tales from the Cafe Before Your Memory Fades Before We Say Goodbye And the upcoming BEFORE WE FORGET KINDESS