$9.99 with 44 percent savings
Digital List Price: $17.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC.
Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Thomas Kaufman
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Drink the Tea: A Mystery (Willis Gidney Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Thomas Kaufman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
See all formats and editions

Willis Gidney is a born liar and rip-off artist, an expert at the scam. Growing up without parents or a home, by age twelve he is a successful young man, running his own small empire, until he meets Shadrack Davies. That's Captain Shadrack Davies, of the D.C. Police. Davies wants to reform Gidney and becomes his foster father. Though he tries not to, Gidney learns a small amount of ethics from Shad---just enough to bother a kid from the streets for the rest of his life.

Now Gidney is a PI, walking those same streets. So it's no surprise that when his closest friend, jazz saxophonist Steps Jackson, asks Gidney to find his missing daughter, Gidney is compelled to say yes---even though she's been missing for twenty-five years. He finds a woman who may be the girl's mother--and within hours she turns up dead. The police accuse Gidney of the murder and throw him in jail.


Maybe Gidney should quit while he's behind. But when his investigation puts him up against a ruthless multinational corporation, a two-faced congressman, and a young woman desperate to conceal her past, Gidney has no time left for second thoughts. In fact, he may have no time left at all.

Thomas Kaufman is a winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. His debut novel, Drink the Tea, which boasts an original PI and an engaging cast of characters, adds a fresh perspective to the genre.

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    303 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Minotaur Books
  4. Publication date
    March 2, 2010
  5. File size
    3.0 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
Next slide of product details

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kaufman, the winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition, introduces an unusual PI, a former foster child, in his impressive debut. Too often in mystery fiction a character's difficult upbringing is tacked on, but Willis Gidney bears emotional scars from being abandoned that are both convincing and relevant to the story line. Jazz great Steps Jackson, a friend of the D.C. gumshoe, hires Gidney to locate his long-lost daughter. Gidney, who normally serves subpoenas, attracts the interest of a creepy private security firm and an ambitious right-wing politician. After a lead takes him to Colette Andrews, the wife of the former Virginia state attorney general, Colette turns up shot to death, and the police suspect Gidney of having pulled the trigger. While one coincidental development will raise eyebrows, Kaufman, a director and cameraman who twice won the Gordon Parks Award for cinematography, pulls off a taut, compelling tale of violence and corruption. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As a child, Willis Gidney was homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C. Not even knowing his own name, he entered the D.C. juvenile justice system named for the two beat cops who collared him. Juvie made him tough and street-smart. Now 35, he’s a struggling PI. A good friend asks Gidney to find a daughter who has been missing for 25 years. Dead bodies begin to pile up immediately, and Gidney is up to his neck in crooked congressmen, rapacious corporations, hired guns, cynical cops, and devious women. Kaufman, an award-winning cinematographer, has created a wonderful new series hero, a smart, tough, and cocky knight errant scarred by his past but resilient and resourceful. Gidney’s backstory almost takes precedence over the case, but Kaufman artfully weaves them together. His D.C., from the corridors of Capitol Hill to the horrors of juvenile-detention centers, is knowing and vividly evoked. His dialogue is clever and often quirky, and he surrounds Gidney with a host of strong characters. Fans of PI novels will love this one. --Thomas Gaughan

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003CI90N0
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Minotaur Books; 1st edition (March 2, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 2, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.0 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 031260730X
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Thomas Kaufman

Thomas Kaufman

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Thomas Kaufman is the author of DRINK THE TEA, which won the Private Eye Writers Competition for Best First Novel. STEAL THE SHOW is the sequel, also with Willis Gidney. In the works is the third book in the series, FACE THE MUSIC.

An Emmy Award-winning motion picture director/cameraman, Thomas shoots TV shows for National Geographic and Discovery channels about cops -- all kinds of cops, including the FBI, the DEA, and metro police all over the United states. For years he's been filming in high definition. Now he's writing in high definition.

Recently, Thomas was interviewed on NPR: http://bit.ly/cCCMPn

Since graduating from the University of Southern California with an MFA in Film Production, he has worked as a Director of Photography on documentary, commercial, and fiction films. In addition to working as director/cameraman for National Geographic and Discovery Channels, Mr Kaufman has also shot documentaries for British Broadcasting Corporation, WGBH, WNET, and for Academy Ward winners Charles Guggenheim, Barbara Koppel, and Mark Jonathan Harris.

You can see his film work here: www.thomaskaufman.com/dp

Mr Kaufman's current project is an independent documentary, INDIAN HILL. Here's the trailer which includes an interview with Pete Seeger: www.indianhillsummer.org

Mr Kaufman has twice won the Gordon Parks Award for Cinematography, and an Emmy for a documentary about deaf children, SEE WHAT I'M SAYING.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
28 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from the United States

  • James Hagy
    5.0 out of 5 stars A new PI (and a new author) to read and watch for more!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    Thomas Kaufman has given us a new PI, Willis Gidney, someone hopefully we will get to know better in further books. Willis has led a difficult life that has left him in a position to relate with the less fortunate figures he encounters in his story. Drink the Tea rewards readers with a good plot and believable characters.

    The author uses great detail in the book, being true to his first life behind the lens of a camera as an award winning documentary filmmaker. Washington D.C. also plays a starring role in Drink the Tea. Gidney's story has a great many twists and turns that are fun to follow. As an avid reader of quite a few mystery series, Kaufman's Gidney series is definitely on my list and should be on yours, too!
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Avid Reader
    4.0 out of 5 stars A detective you'd want to meet
    Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    I rarely read detective novels, and it's because the protagonist often seems to me to be too good to be true. The detective does everything well, but you wonder why, if he's good at everything, he's a struggling detective. The whole thing just doesn't add up.

    Willis Gidney, the star of "Drink the Tea," is different. Yes, he's got the requisite skills -- brazening his way past all sorts of people, surviving murder attempts, recovering in horus from beatings, and so on -- but you can see why he hasn't been able to pull himself together. He spills it out as flashbacks and asides as he works the streets of Washington, DC, to find a missing person and unravel a growing series of murders.

    The book's pace is fast; it's a classic page-turner. The gist of the story is that Gidney, a bad-boy who's trying to do mostly right, is asked by a good friend to find the friend's daughter. Gidney stumbles into a conspiracy that involves corrupt politicians (the story is set in Washington, DC), rapacious businesses, family secrets, and amoral killers. When he hits a block, Gidney improvises, often with memorable wisecracks that make the book funnier than it has any right to be, given the amount of violence that takes place. Along the way, Gidney exorcises personal demons that have accumulated since his childhood abandonment and life in orphanages and foster homes.

    It's quite a mashup: detective work, political intrigue, humor, espionage, social critique, and lots of humor. Pick up "Drink the Tea" for your next trip, and you'll be hooked.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • michelle martin
    3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    was an ok read
    Helpful
     Report
  • angelicake
    5.0 out of 5 stars Drink The Tea
    Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    Great debut book. Really enjoyed it - very likable lead character. Found it difficult to put down...great page turner!!!!
    Looking forward to author's next book
    Helpful
     Report
  • Virginia C. Goodwin
    2.0 out of 5 stars Dull
    Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I read alot and have my favorite authors. Thought I'd try something new. Definitely not the right book to try something new. This is the most boring book I've read in ages but once I start a book I'll see it to the end. Don't think I'll be reading much of his books.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • J. B. Hoyos
    5.0 out of 5 stars Steeped With Violence, Mystery and Humor, "Drink The Tea" Is A Top Notch Political Thriller
    Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2010
    Willis Gidney was a child con artist who is now a Washington D.C. private investigator; every night, however, he must battle the ghosts of his traumatic childhood. Jazz musician, Steps Jackson, has asked Gidney to locate his daughter, Bobbie Jackson; she is the product of a one night stand he had with wealthy art collector Colette Andrews. Gidney's investigation leads him to Capitol Hill where he encounters a racist politician, Jason McHugh, who is running for the U.S. Senate. Lilly McClellan, a beautiful computer geek, joins Gidney in his search, which takes him to night clubs, condemned houses, toxic waste dumps and finally to the underground tunnels of the Lincoln Memorial. All the while they are threatened, pursued and assaulted by ruthless thugs who will kill anyone who tries to find the mysterious Bobbie Jackson.

    Thomas Kaufman's award-winning "Drink the Tea" is a fast-paced, cleverly written detective novel that is guaranteed to keep mystery fans turning the pages until the very end. Kaufman takes the reader on a tour of our nation's capital, from the seedy neighborhood of Shaw to the upscale, wealthy neighborhood of Georgetown. And our tour guide is the witty, wisecracking Willis Gidney. He likes to perform voice impersonations of fictional characters such as Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, and Stanley Kowalski of "A Street Car Named Desire." Considering he was a street urchin whose birth parents remain a mystery, Gidney becomes a rather respectable person thanks to the caring hand of Captain Shadrack Davies, one of many in a long line of foster parents. True love means never losing hope that someone will forsake their life of crime.

    On innumerable occasions, Gidney made me laugh out loud with his offbeat thoughts and spoken comments. While sitting inside an office of the Rayburn Building, he glances into the hallway where lawyers and lobbyists are sliding past on each other's slime trails. After listening to a speech given by the racist McHugh who has a Southern drawl, Gidney remarks that he never knew the plural of y'all was all y'all. When caught trying to scale the fence of a toxic waste dump, he tells the security guard he was looking for the Mahatma Ghandi Memorial Barbecue. Gidney's wry sense of humor extends to his business cards which read: "I cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you."

    A former model turned computer geek, Lilly McClellan begins falling in love with Gidney because of his rugged exterior and his soft interior. He is very protective of women and adores children. Upon finding an infant girl at the house of a murdered woman, he can not bare to be separated from her. He leaves her in the care of a highly educated lesbian couple, Jan and Janet, who enjoy drinking tea in their Japanese tea room. Gidney is obsessed with finding Bobbie Jackson, not because of money, but because he truly fears for her safety.

    The plot for "Drink the Tea" has been ripped from the headlines of today's newspapers. At one time, people were growing mushrooms in their dark basements for extra money. Now, they're turning that spare bathroom into a meth lab or that spare bedroom into a marijuana garden. The temptation is great. The profits for growing marijuana are tremendous and they can be used to fund a lot of political influence. Marijuana is America's newest cash crop. As I write this, laws are being passed to make it more accessible for medical usage.

    Nasty villains abound in "Drink the Tea." Gidney is surrounded by them. There is the popular Congressman McHugh and Security Chief Frank Varga of Kerberos. Mal, an employee of Varga's, enjoys a gruesome form of artwork that is created by skulls that splatter blood when shot at close range. Gidney is aided by Lieutenant Emil Haggler, who knew him when he was a delinquent, and a homeless man, Augustus, who served in the Gulf War. Augustus comes in handy when providing distractions with explosive devices. Lilly has wonderful computer hacking skills that are put to good use. Hacking into Pepco, she discovers that every filthy apartment Bobbie has rented has had huge electric bills (not to mention holes in the ceiling, garbage bags taped over the windows, and breaker boxes converted to maintain higher electrical currents).

    Thomas Kaufman`s "Drink the Tea" is highly recommended for fans of detective noir and political thrillers. A superb debut novel, it introduces an unique D.C. detective of whom readers will hope to see more. If "Drink the Tea" is your cup of tea, then I recommend "Faces of the Gone," which involves a wise cracking journalist, Ross Carter, who is determined to learn who executed four drug dealers. Other action packed detective novels involving heroes being chased by lowlifes are "The Good Son," "The Ragged End of Nowhere" and "Death Wore White."

    Joseph B. Hoyos
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Louis Burklow
    4.0 out of 5 stars not entirely honest but too decent to really be bad. I look forward to reading a lot more ...
    Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    In creating a gumshoe hero it's difficult to make them stand out. Thomas Kaufman has managed to find in Willis Gidney a scam artist and born con man. A child of the streets, he was taken under the wing of a D.C. police captain who becomes his foster father and gives him a crash course in ethics. Now a private eye, Gidney is hired by his close friend Steps Jackson to find his missing daughter. Never mind that she left 25 years ago; Steps wants to see her again and Gidney cannot say no. In the course of his investigation he meets up with a dishonest politician, a ruthless multinational corporation and a murder charge. Gidney is one of the most unique detective heroes in a long time, not entirely honest but too decent to really be bad. I look forward to reading a lot more of his adventures down the mean streets of Washington.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report