Welcome to Mac’s Bikes! I’m Mackenzie Almeida, but everybody calls me Mac. What’s that, you don’t want to rent a bicycle? No worries, although our Cape Cod bike paths run for miles and are mostly flat. You didn’t bring one in to be repaired, either, I see.

Hang on just a second, I need to put out the Open flag. It’s the last thing on my store-opening checklist. I’m big on checklists. Mom says I’m a bit too obsessed with order and neatness, but of course she chalks that up to my astrological chart with my sun in Virgo. I say a mechanic has to be neat and do things in order, right? Also, if you live in a tiny house like I do, well, a place for everything and everything in its place, like my grandma Abo Reba says.

Oh, you have a question about the Cozy Capers? Great. I think we have room for one more member. We’re a book group that only reads cozy mysteries, one each week, in fact. We meet on Thursday nights, usually in the lighthouse my brother lives in, and we always make food from the book, whether from a recipe that the author includes or a dish mentioned in the story. My friend Gin is in the group – she runs Salty Taffy’s, the candy store at the other end of town. We also have the head librarian, the town clerk, the rum distiller, our former police chief, and Tulia, who owns the Lobstah Shack. It’s a fun group.

That picture? That’s Belle, my African Gray parrot. She’s a hoot. I’m drastically allergic to cats and dogs, so she’s the only kind of pet I can have.

Uh-oh, there’s Lincoln Haskins out on the sidewalk. Yes, state police detective Haskins. I hope he’s not here to tell me about another homicide in town. Literally tripping over a body a few weeks ago was an experience I never want to repeat. The book group started getting all excited that we were going to be in our own cozy mystery. I reminded them this was real life, not fiction!

And when the killer started coming after me? I knew it was for real.

Hey, gotta run. I have to finish tuning up fifteen tour group bikes before the tour leaders arrive to pick them up. If you want some yummy baked goods, stop in at Greta’s Grains. It’s my boyfriend’s bakery.

Have a glorious day, and enjoy the Cape!


Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a signed copy of Murder On Cape Cod. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends December 19, 2018. Good luck everyone! Bonus question: do you ride a bike?


You can read more about Mac in Murder On Cape Cod, the first book in the NEW “Cozy Capers Book Group” mystery series, coming December 18, 2018 only at Barnes & Noble and will release on all platforms and formats a year from now.

A Cape Cod shop owner and her book club must find a crafty killer in this charming new series from the Agatha-nominated author of the Country Store Mystery series.

Summer is busy season for Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida’s bicycle shop, nestled in the quaint, seaside hamlet of Westham, Massachusetts. She’s expecting an influx of tourists at Mac’s Bikes; instead she discovers the body of Jake Lacey. Mac can’t imagine anyone stabbing the down-on-his-luck handyman. However, the authorities seem to think Mac is a strong suspect after she was spotted arguing with Jake just hours before his death. Mac knows she didn’t do it, but she does recognize the weapon—her brother Derrick’s fishing knife.

Mac’s only experience with murder investigations is limited to the cozy mysteries she reads with her local book group, the Cozy Capers. So to clear her name—and maybe her brother’s too—Mac will have to summon help from her Cozy Capers co-investigators and a library’s worth of detectives’ tips and tricks. For a small town, Westham is teeming with possible killers, and this is one mystery where Mac is hoping for anything but a surprise ending. . .

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About the author
Agatha- and Macavity-nominated Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t wasting time on Facebook. Please find her there, at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.

All comments are welcomed.