A Tomes & Tea Mystery Series

Daisy Swanson’s daughter Jazzi has moved away to the lakeside town of Belltower Landing, but the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. Much like Daisy, she’s running a tea bar and bookshop––and has a knack for getting into hot water…

Town librarian Mathilda has a troublesome new emplROSEoyee, and after Jazzi spots the two of them arguing at the ice-sculpture festival, Mathilda asks Jazzi if she’d mind discussing her workplace woes over a cup of tea. During the visit, Jazzi also finds out about Mathilda’s top-secret stash of valuable first editions.

Soon afterward, those rare books have vanished—and Mathilda is dead. As the police check out suspects and a lawyer searches for the next of kin, Jazzi learns that the librarian’s life was as mysterious as any crime thriller. She’d left home and changed her name as a teenager, and always seemed a little lonely. Oddly, it’s her new employee who seems the most distraught.

It’s the off-season, so the upstate New York town is free of the usual swarm of tourists—but the quiet doesn’t last long. The press is descending as the murder makes national news, and rumors start circulating. With Belltower Landing steeped in suspicion, Jazzi must figure out whether the first editions were the real motive for sending Mathilda to her final resting place…

Following in her mother Daisy’s footsteps, Jazzi Swanson has transformed her rural New York bookshop and tea bar, Tomes & Tea, into a must-stop destination in the lakeside resort town of Belltower Landing, New York, where, in addition to her talent for tea, Jazzi has shown a skill for sleuthing when trouble is brewing . . .

The Gentleman’s Bake-off is not only good for the town’s tourism, it’s bound to boost business at Tomes & Tea. The celebrity judges of the contest—chefs, bakers, restauranteurs—will all be signing their cookbooks at Jazzi’s shop. But with all the big personalities and inflated egos, she’s starting to wonder if there are—as the saying goes—too many cooks.

The competition is far from killer, with mostly residents and neighbors vying for bragging rights. But when local photographer Finn Yarrow takes first place, someone commits a most ungentlemanly act. Jazzi’s partner Dawn finds the man bludgeoned next to his prizewinning Black Forest Cake.

Between the judges and the contestants, the bookshop shop owner soon finds herself steeped in suspects as she tries to solve the crime. Was the murder connected to the bake-off—or did the shutterbug perhaps photograph something he shouldn’t have? Either way, Jazzi is determined to find a killer who’s trying to have their cake and eat it too . . .

The first in a new series spun off from the Daisy Tea Garden Mysteries, Daisy’s daughter Jazzi Swanson has opened her own book and tea shop in a rural New York community. But Jazzi has not only inherited her mother’s gift for brewing tasty drinks—she also has a nose for sniffing out murder.

New York State’s Belltower Landing is a lakeside resort town where tourists spend their summer days boating, floating, and paddle-boarding on the water. It’s also the perfect place to cuddle up with a good book and enjoy a cup of tea, courtesy of Tomes & Tea. Owned and operated by Jazzi and her best friend Dawn Fernsby, the book bar is beloved by vacationers and locals alike, but browsers grabbing brews in the off season aren’t enough to help them make ends meet.

Between brainstorming social media publicity ideas for the shop and fending off flirtatious men, Jazzi befriends a woman named Brie who has recently made contact with her biological father. As an adopted child herself, Jazzi is more than happy to give Brie emotional support, especially as the wife and children of Brie’s father see her as a threat. But when Brie is found murdered,  Jazzi may need to consult some of her shop’s bestselling mysteries to help her uncover a killer . . .