I woke up early this morning knowing I had a full day ahead of me. I took a long look out my bedroom’s bay window. The majestic Hudson River and the dramatic cliffs of New Jersey’s Palisades have always inspired me. When I’m not at my penthouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I live here at Riverside Cottage in Willow Bluffs on the former estate of my late husband’s family. I recently sold most of the property along with the stately Italianate manor house Jonathan and I once lived in, keeping the cottage and a few acres for myself. With a family legacy in mind, I donated ten acres to Willow Bluffs for the development of a community park. Let’s just say things didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned.
I invited my great-niece, Lacey Langdon, to live at the cottage full-time after the tragic death of her parents in a car accident last year. She’s inherited her mother’s stationery and event planning business, Letter Perfect. I’m happy to see her thriving despite a minor death or two at her parties.
Many of you may know I’ve been portraying Caroline Manchester, the darling of the popular soap opera Edge of Darkness, for decades, and yes, I’m of a certain age. But Lacey keeps me young! I’m always encouraging her to take her relationship with her charming attorney friend, Derek Conover, to the next level. “Oh, Aunt T,” she says. “You’re incorrigible.” (I am, you know.) They’ve been seeing quite a bit of each other as they try to solve the murder of one of our town councilmen. Police say he was helped off a cliff here on the estate and found on the bank of the Hudson during one of Lacey’s events—unfortunately, the dedication of the new Willow Bluffs Community Park.
I dressed in a hurry in a black gabardine pencil skirt and cream silk blouse with a Hermès scarf over my blonde bob. “Hair and Makeup” would transform me later at the studio. Lacey was already brewing coffee when I went downstairs to the kitchen. I quickly drank a cup before my dedicated manager, Julien La Fontaine, picked me up and drove me to Landmark Productions in the city.
Julien ran lines with me while my magical hair and makeup artists turned me into the beloved matriarch of the Manchester family. We taped four new episodes of Edge. Not a bad day’s work.
By the time Julien dropped me off at my penthouse, I was exhausted. As I relaxed on the sofa with a cup of chamomile tea, I received two rather mysterious calls from Lacey. First, she asked if I had sent a package to the cottage. (I hadn’t.) A while later, she said she and Derek were on their way into Manhattan and they would be stopping by shortly. I was delighted. But what was up?
INVITATION TO MURDER
Series: A Killer Event Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: May 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Nothing spoils a party like an uninvited corpse, which is just Lacey Langdon’s luck as she inherits a printing and party-planning business in this letter-perfect debut mystery.
After inheriting her mother’s printing and party-planning business, Lacey Langdon moves back to her sleepy hometown of Willow Bluffs, perched on New Jersey’s Palisades. When her great-aunt, Tessa Langdon Vander Horn, a well-known and beloved soap opera star, sells her nineteenth-century estate and donates ten acres to the development of a community park, Lacey’s new venture is put at the helm of the opening ceremony. But the festivities quickly come to an end when the body of town councilman Glenn Hartman is found on the bank of the Hudson River.
Partnering with her former classmate, lawyer Derek Conover, they dig deep into the case to find out who is behind the murder. Suspicions abound, but Lacey and Derek hit a snag when one of their prime suspects drops dead at Lacey’s next event. With a second body added to the count, tensions rise in Willow Bluffs.
Caught in the cross fire when remnants of a family tragedy resurface, Lacey and Derek must act swiftly before another body drops dead.
Perfect for readers of Ellie Brannigan and Laurien Berenson, this cozy mystery is a charming small-town read.
Meet the author
After studying at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and graduating from Rider University, Carol Floriani worked for many years in the editorial and publicity departments of a Big Five publisher before ultimately embarking on her writing career. In addition to Invitation to Murder, she has written two previously published young adult novels.