Picture this: your phone buzzes with a text from your murdered boss. Not a scheduled message or a glitch—her actual ghost, reaching out from beyond the grave to demand justice. That’s the situation Sydney Farina finds herself in at the start of my Texts From Beyond cozy mystery series, and like any reasonable person, her first question is: how is this happening?
Her second question, once the shock wears off, is: why me?
I knew the answers the whole time. I just wasn’t telling.
Over the course of the series, Sydney gets pulled into murder investigations by a poisoned catering client, a slaughtered scam artist, and others, all of them reaching out via text from the great beyond. She tries buying a new phone, but it doesn’t help. She’s frustrated, baffled, and more than a little resentful about being the universe’s go-to ghostly investigator. As her author, I found her frustration delightful, because I knew exactly what was going on and she didn’t.
That’s the thing about withholding a mystery: it only works if the question genuinely nags at the reader. “Why does Sydney get these texts?” had to feel urgent enough that readers would follow her through multiple books hoping for an answer. Every time Sydney hit a dead end (pun intended), I needed that unanswered question to pull readers forward. Dropping hints that raised more questions than they answered was the goal. Letting the mystery breathe made each book feel like one piece of a larger puzzle rather than a standalone story with a convenient supernatural explanation tacked on.
There was also a craft reason to wait. The answer to why Sydney is a big one, and revealing it too early would’ve deflated that weight. Ghostly Group Chat is the fourth and final installment in the series, and it’s the book where Sydney finally gets the explanation she’s been demanding since book one. I won’t spoil it here, but I will say: she didn’t see it coming, and hopefully neither will you.
If you’re ready to find out why Sydney Farina gets texts from dead people, Ghostly Group Chat is available now.
GHOSTLY GROUP CHAT
Series: A Texts From Beyond Mystery, Book 4
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
Sydney Farina has a gift nobody asked for: dead people text her. It’s how she’s solved multiple murders, saved her sister from a wrongful conviction, and accumulated enough trauma to keep a therapist in business for years. So when she finds her sister’s cheating ex-husband stabbed in his own bed, she’s not surprised when his ghost shows up in her messages.
Brett Epworth was many things—narcissist, manipulator, world-class thorn in Sydney’s side—and apparently he’s just as insufferable dead as he was alive. He doesn’t believe he’s been murdered, and Sydney has to pick out useful information in between his insults and self-praise. But he’s also, infuriatingly, her best lead.
Between a former employee stealing her bakery’s recipes, a new living situation with her boyfriend, and a suspect list that keeps getting shorter and more dangerous, Sydney has her hands full. And as she digs deeper into the Epworth family’s secrets, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear:
The killer isn’t done yet.
About the author
Kristen Brand writes supernatural fiction about ordinary women facing extraordinary threats. Whether they’re exorcising demons, hunting fae, or solving murders, her protagonists tackle the paranormal with wit, strength, and a healthy dose of sarcasm. Kristen lives in Florida with her husband and son, and her hobbies include crochet, comic books, and desperately trying to keep the plants in her garden alive. Visit her at KristenBrand.com for more info.