Some mornings start with coffee. This one started with a phone call she’d been dreading for two years.
When Sage Holloway’s closest ally turns up dead — accident, say the police, murder, says everything she knows about him — she finally sees the full scope of what Margaret Ashworth has been quietly building for forty years. The evidence is devastating. The proof is almost enough. And Margaret is still three steps ahead.
In Crescent Harbor, the scones are fresh, the secrets run deep, and some long games are just getting started.
Some questions get journalists killed. Diana Mercer’s were about land deals.
When a freelance writer researching Crescent Harbor’s “revitalization story” is found dead in her rental cottage two days before Christmas, the police call it a break-in gone wrong. Sage Holloway calls it something worse—because Diana walked into her bakery asking about property transfers, and the questions she was asking sounded a lot like the ones Sage has been whispering to herself since autumn.
The trail leads to an out-of-town investor with a crumbling alibi and a history of deals that go dirty. But Diana didn’t find him on her own. Someone slipped her an unsigned note. Someone with deep roots, old connections, and the kind of local knowledge that doesn’t come from research.
It comes from running the town for forty years.
Now Sage is sitting across from the most dangerous woman she’s ever met, asking a question no one has asked in four decades. The answer comes wrapped in hypotheticals, delivered with genuine warmth, and followed by a smile that could be fondness or a threat—or both.
You’re the first person in forty years clever enough to see it.
The icy steps were a warning. The fractured friendships are the cost. And the black cat who screamed in the dark is the only reason Sage is still standing.
In Crescent Harbor, the gingerbread is lying, the loyalties are cracking, and some games don’t end when you learn the truth. They’re just getting started.
Some allergies are deadly. This one was deliberate.
When an aggressive property lawyer collapses at Crescent Harbor’s harvest festival, everyone assumes it’s a tragic accident—a man with a known allergy who ate the wrong thing. But Sage Holloway notices what no one else does: the faint golden sheen on his plate that doesn’t match any oil the vendors carry. Walnut oil has a very specific color. And the festival is tree nut free.
The suspect pool is long. Harrison Cross made enemies the way other people made small talk. But one man at that festival wasn’t eating, wasn’t mingling, wasn’t doing anything except standing very still with a cup of cider he never drank—watching Cross die.
Solving the murder should be enough. It isn’t.
Because the deeper Sage digs into the victim’s past, the more she finds—property deals that squeezed old families out of land they’d held for generations. Shell companies with too many layers. A retired teacher’s research that vanished the night she died. And the same name surfacing again and again, buried under enough paperwork to look like coincidence.
Then the most gracious woman in town invites her for tea, pours the Darjeeling, and says something that sounds like concern but feels like a warning.
In Crescent Harbor, the leaves are falling, the pattern is forming, and some alibis only hold up until a baker with a food science degree starts asking the wrong questions.
She’s solved two murders. Now the cat won’t stop staring at the one person nobody suspects—and this time, the danger isn’t what Sage has found. It’s who noticed her looking.
(A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery Series Book 45)
Fall cozy mystery with food, fun & felonies
Welcome back to Happy Trails Campground in Normal, Kentucky—where the leaves are turning, the coffee is hot, and something suspicious is always brewing.
This fall-themed cozy mystery serves up everything readers love: campground life, Southern charm, small-town gossip, and a tight-knit community that sticks together when trouble rolls in.
Expect festive gatherings, comfort food, and a whole lot of cozy chaos as Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies find themselves right in the middle of another can’t-look-away mystery.
Between RV living, seasonal recipes, quirky townsfolk, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, this story delivers all the warm, feel-good vibes of fall… with just a touch of trouble.
✔ fall cozy mystery vibes ✔ small-town Southern setting ✔ campground & RV life ✔ food, recipes & gatherings ✔ amateur sleuth heroine ✔ quirky, lovable characters ✔ friendship, gossip & community ✔ clean mystery with humor
Perfect for readers who love cozy mysteries filled with seasonal charm, found family, and a setting that feels like home.
Because at Happy Trails… there’s always something going on.
(A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery Series Book 44)
Southern campground cozy tea party murder.
Spring has bloomed across Normal, Kentucky, and the Historical Society’s elegant tea fundraiser at The Milkery Bed-and-Breakfast is supposed to be the social event of the season. Fancy hats, polished silver, and enough gossip to keep the church prayer chain busy for months have the whole town buzzing.
Then Southern etiquette expert Florence Sparks winds up dead at the bottom of the staircase.
At first, Sheriff Al Hemmer believes Florence simply took a nasty tumble in her high heels. But when toxicology reveals poison, suspicion quickly lands on Tex Randal, the campground’s shirtless chiropractor, Reiki healer, and favorite local flirt, after one of his signature roller bottles from Cascades Mobile Spa is connected to the murder.
Mae West Sharp knows Tex may be many things, but a killer is not one of them.
So with the ever-nosy Laundry Club Ladies at her side, Mae starts digging through dangerous secrets, shifting social circles, suspicious seating charts, and enough small-town drama to make a casserole supper go dead quiet.
The deeper Mae digs, the clearer it becomes that Florence knew far too much about Normal’s most influential residents. Someone was willing to poison her to keep those secrets buried beneath sweet tea smiles and Southern manners.
Because in Normal, Kentucky, good etiquette might get you invited to the tea party, but it will not keep murder off the guest list.
Perfect for readers who love:
🏕️ Campground cozy mysteries 🫖 Southern tea parties and small-town gossip 👭 The Laundry Club Ladies 🔎 Amateur sleuths and twisty whodunits 😂 Southern humor, charm, and community drama
Welcome back to Normal, where the sweet tea is cold, the gossip is hot, and murder always shows up uninvited.
