Murder at the Coffee Exchange by Sarah Levine Simon

Dita Marx, dancer/choreographer, is the Artistic Director of The Harlem Center for the Arts. She has recently hired cartoonist Jeremy Windt to teach and takes him to lunch in the Coffee Exchange. There he recognizes Cassia Warshaw. She was his college English instructor and lover fifteen years ago. Cassia tells Jeremy that she has become a full-time peace activist with the International Cooperation Committee (ICC). The ICC runs a home for runaway girls.   They are both the children of holocaust survivors The ICC is funded by Helping Hands, a charity with terrorist ties under investigation by the Justice Department.

Jeremy confronts Cassia’s extreme views by placing cartoons parodying the ICC on Cassia’s blog. They spar—his version of history v. hers. Finally realizing Cassia is intractable, Jeremy points a water gun at the lens of a camcorder and squirts. He posts the clip with the caption: “What we need is to shorten history.” Cassia interprets it as a murder threat and obtains a temporary restraining order against Jeremy. Her daily presence in the Coffee Exchange means that Jeremy is unable to come to work. Dita Marx devises a way for Jeremy to enter the Center an hour before the Exchange opens and moves his studio to the top floor. When Cassia is found murdered in a restroom in the basement of the exchange, Jeremy is arrested.

Suspicious of the ICC, Dita decides to go undercover as a volunteer. She takes her former dance partner CJ and his significant other Neil along with her. Hilarity ensues.

The murder of Cassia and the disinformation she hears at the ICC makes Dita and her husband Dan embark on a spiritual journey.  Dan has decided to convert to Judaism. They study at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Meanwhile Dita’s students are performing for Summer Solstice in Central Park. Cravens and cohorts have planned massive demonstrations throughout New York City on that day but Helping Hands has betrayed Cravens and plans a terrorist attack.

Two of Dita’s students wander into a cave in the park to share lunch where they are confronted by a suicide bomber. They make a miraculous escape. Dita comes to look for them and she, CJ, and Neil are taken hostage and made to put on vests which the terrorist will detonate by cell phone unless some way can be found to jam the signal.