The Mystery Roast
Estranged from his wife, Eric Auden moves into a West Village loft above the Mystery Roast Cafe, where he reunites with his childhood friend, Timothy, a gay artist, and falls in love with female inventor Inca
Read More
Eric Auden, recently estranged from his wife and the world, finds himself one snowy day in New York's greatest art museum confronting the cool marble contours of the Goddess of Desire, forty-five centuries old and still a bit of a flirt. Helplessly enchanted, and hoping to revise his life, he steals her. The Mystery Roast, Peter Gadol's magical new novel, shows what happens when Desire is set loose in the world.With the stolen statue, Eric moves into a loft building in the gray and gritty frontier of Manhattan's far West Village, upstairs from the Mystery Roast Cafe, an outpost of funk and fine food where not even Andre the proprietor knows what beans go into the blend of each day's coffee (it's anyone's guess and everyone guesses). There Eric is reunited with his childhood friend Timothy, an artist who is Andre's on-off lover, and falls headlong for an enigmatic gadget designer named Inca. Together they concoct a scheme to sell reproductions of the ancient idol, the Goddess of Desire. But the mystery thickens when Eric's mother, Lydia, falls in love with the museum official investigating the theft. And watching fascinated from his Central Park penthouse is Lydia's ex-husband, Jason, the reclusive philosopher-guru, who just might have to come down from his perch to rescue the entire cast of lovers and inventors, detectives and thieves.The Goddess of Desire - with Eric Auden in tow - skewers her way through New York, from the quirky cafe in the meat-packing district to posh East Side parlors, from a trendy downtown gallery to countless lonely bedsides, inspiring yearning everywhere she goes. The Mystery Roast is a carnival of urban romance, a tale of interlacing intrigues, and a story of love and longing delivered in a sure, fresh, surprising, and imaginative voice.
Read Less