Hearth & Quill Mysteries #1 (2025)

When Harper Whitmore inherits her great-aunt’s beloved bookstore in the picturesque town of Fall, Michigan, she thinks she’s found the perfect place to start over. But Fall is more than just a name—it’s a place where the leaves never stop turning, the air smells faintly of cinnamon, and secrets rustle just beneath the surface.

The Hearth & Quill is everything Harper dreamed it would be: warm, brimming with charm, and hiding a few surprises—including secret passageways. But her fresh start unravels when Prudence Sherman, the town’s most notorious (and merciless) pie contest judge, is found dead at the start of the Apple Harvest Festival.

Drawn into the investigation, Harper relies on her sharp intuition, a stubborn streak, and the help of her quirky new friend Maggie, not to mention the handsome apple orchard owner, Gabe. The deeper she digs, the more she uncovers a tangle of lies, a stolen golden-tipped quill, and whispers of history that someone is desperate to rewrite.

As crimson and gold leaves swirl through the streets, Harper must piece together clues hidden in her aunt’s old journals and outsmart a killer—before the final chapter ends with her.

Brimming with small-town charm, autumn magic, and page-turning intrigue, Autumn & Alibis is the perfect mystery to curl up with under a blanket and a pumpkin spice latte.

The leaves are blazing, the bonfires are burning, and in Fall, Michigan, some secrets refuse to stay buried.

Harper Whitmore is settling into life in the perpetually autumnal town of Fall. Her bookstore, Hearth & Quill, is thriving, her friendships are stronger than ever, and a romance is brewing with handsome orchard owner Gabe Sullivan. But just as the town prepares for its beloved Autumn Blaze Festival, a decades-old mystery comes roaring back to life.

Years ago, Thomas Pennington vanished from Maple Grove Dairy without a trace. Now his disappearance has caught the attention of Lena Cross and Theo Marsh, hosts of the popular true-crime podcast Motor City Mysteries—and their arrival in Fall has everyone talking.

With Lena and Theo digging into the past, Sheriff Carlisle reopening old wounds, and half the town suddenly remembering things they’d rather forget, Harper finds herself pulled into another investigation.

The deeper she digs, the more tangled the story becomes: secret loans, suspicious land records, old romances, family betrayals—and a truth someone has spent years keeping hidden. As the Autumn Blaze Festival approaches and a towering bonfire waits to be lit, Harper must unravel what really happened to Thomas Pennington before another secret disappears into the flames.

Brimming with crackling fires, slow-burn romance, buried secrets, and all the cozy autumn atmosphere of Fall, Michigan, Bonfire & Betrayal is perfect for readers who like their cider warm, their bookstores charming, and their cold cases very, very complicated.