If I’ve learned anything throughout my nearly five decades career it’s to trust your instincts. Your brain is constantly analyzing information and pulling together details for matters outside of your immediate focus. And if it detects trouble, it notifies your body to warn you—it’s the twinge in your gut, the hair rising on the back of your neck, the involuntary shiver that slides down your spine. I know this all too well; trouble is something I’ve seen quite a lot of in my life.

I’m Harry Lancaster, a widower and retired anthropologist. And after a lifetime of helping others—in refugee camps and conflict zones and vulnerable communities around the world—now I’m the one in need. I’ve got a fractured hip thanks to a nasty fall on a brick path after teaching an evening anthropology class at the nearby university. Which is why, much to my dismay, I had to hire Emma Stockton, a professional caregiver.

I’m doing my best not to let Emma know how much I dislike having to rely on her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s kind and nurturing, but I desperately miss my independence. With more energy than a cheerleader after three double-shot lattes, Emma drives me to physical therapy, insists that I go on walks, and helps with chores around the house. Fortunately, she hasn’t roped me into discussions about her wedding plans, yet. I went through that once with my daughter, Ceci, and I don’t need to go through that again.

Anyway, these days, instead of traveling the globe, I spend my time sitting in my sunroom armchair observing—not spying on—my neighbors with binoculars that have impressive daytime and nighttime ranges thanks to built-in infrared lights. I don’t look inside windows, but I figure anything outside is fair game. I monitor behaviors, patterns, interactions, and inconsistencies—all of which inform my instincts.

So when a neighbor phones me, begging for help, and Emma and I rush to her house only to find her dead, I know her death is not what it appears to be—no matter what the police say. Figuring out what happened to my neighbor becomes a challenge I can’t ignore. A challenge Emma insists on joining, which I guess is okay, as long as I don’t get dragged into helping plan her wedding.

A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: January 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

A cranky widower and his spirited caregiver team up to solve his neighbor’s murder in this charming and original mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Benjamin Stevenson.

Once a globe-trotting anthropologist, Harry Lancaster is now certain that all his grand adventures are behind him. Recently widowed and suffering from a fractured hip, Harry spends his days and nights behind a pair of binoculars, nose-deep in his neighbors’ affairs. His millennial caregiver, Emma, is determined to get him out of his armchair and back into the world.

Fate intervenes when Harry’s mysterious neighbor, Sue, phones, pleading for help. But instead of rescuing her, Harry and Emma find Sue dead: poisoned, days after a break-in at Sue’s house. Harry resolves to find out what happened, and Emma insists on going along for the ride. Together, they discover motives and suspects abound in Harry’s quaint condominium community—putting them both in the crosshairs of a cold-blooded killer.

Meet the author
Michelle L. Cullen has lived and traveled all over the world: from working as a (decent if powered by enough espresso) bilingual secretary in Paris to backpacking around Europe, Central America, and Southern Africa, to helping to rebuild communities after war throughout Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific. She studied anthropology at Melbourne University in Australia and sociology at the London School of Economics in England. She currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland, where she’s busy doing yoga, playing outside, or plotting murder. She’s a proud member of SinC, ITW, MWA, and The Authors Guild.