Wouldn’t you think a small coastal Massachusetts town would be mostly crime-free during a chilly March? I’m Detective Sergeant Penelope Johnson with the Westham police, and I can tell you that’s not the case.

We had all hands on deck that Saturday for the Spring Festival. The new Chamber of Commerce head had decided a bike parade down Main Street on the Spring Equinox was a good idea, with children and adults decorating their cycles with flowers and all the shops similarly outfitting their front windows. He didn’t seem to care that a snowstorm was forecast to blow in and the temperatures were borderline frigid. New England can take a long time to warm up in the spring.

I’m not a bike cop, but I was on duty around the edges, watching for suspicious behavior, listening to conversations. Little towns like ours aren’t exempt from larceny drug dealing, domestic abuse, and worse.

Still, the storm held off and the atmosphere was generally festive, with tourists and locals alike sampling freebies from lollipops to fish chowder to pencils labeled with the bookstore’s name.

Except the mood in the Book Nook flipped to darker than dark after a body was found crushed under a massive—and overturned—bookcase. Now we had a homicide on our hands.

Murder At A Cape Bookstore, A Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery Book #5
Genre: Cozy
Release: August 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

It’s mud season on Cape Cod, and when an ill wind blows in a murder with a twist in the tale, bicycle shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida and her crime-solving book group are ready to leaf through the clues . . .

Everyone loves a festival, though Mac has a few concerns about the Spring equinox event organized by the new Chamber of Commerce director, Wagner Lavoie. After all, March weather is unpredictable. Still, there’s plenty to enjoy, between flower-shaped candies at Salty Taffy’s, spring rolls at the Rusty Anchor, and a parade of decorated bicycles. But the festivities soon take a stormy turn . . .

Mac glimpses conflict between Wagner and other locals during the festival, but it’s a shock when he’s found dead in the Book Nook, pinned beneath a toppled bookshelf. It’s an irresistible case for Mac’s book group. She and the rest of the Cozy Capers will have to use all their sleuthing skills to bring the killer’s story to an end . . .

About the author
Maddie Day pens the Country Store Mysteries, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the new Cece Barton Mysteries. As Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell, she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and short crime fiction. Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and cat Martin north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com, wickedauthors.com, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and on social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

All comments are welcomed.