Close the Book on Murder

In a lakeside town in upstate New York, Daisy Swanson’s daughter Jazzi carries on the family tradition as proprietor of a bookshop and tea bar—as well as her mother’s legacy as a sleuth . . .

Belltower Landing gallery owner Sophronia Abbott is a fixture at Tomes & Tea.  She’s one of their more demanding customers—and most likely their richest. The staff makes sure to pamper her, though they draw the line at letting her poodles, Jet and Jinx, sniff around the tea bar’s tasty treats.

Currently, the widowed heiress is preparing for the town’s Local Artists Showcase, where she plans to unveil her latest painting. The local buzz is that the mysterious picture will reveal a secret—and after she confides in Jazzi about her estranged son, a struggling artist who’s still sponging off the family fortune, Jazzi’s intrigued too. At least the Abbott family tensions serve as a good distraction from her worries over her sweetheart, who still hasn’t returned from Australia . . .

After the big secret is revealed, the stakes are raised for the Abbott siblings—and Sophronia’s pet-sitter returns from the dog park to find her dead. It looks like this drama was more than a tempest in a teapot, and some surprise inheritances and stories from Sophronia’s past may just lead Jazzi to a killer . . .