Guest Sleuth Spotlight: Becca Garner: Clues, Chaos, and a Cat
Meet Becca Garner — a new voice in paranormal cozy mystery. A cat adoption, an unconscious volunteer, and a ghost who refuses to stay quiet.
Series: Standalone
The Book: Hazel Merriweather walks into a cluttered coastal animal shelter looking for two simple things — a cat, and maybe a fresh start. What she walks back out with is an unconscious volunteer on the floor, a regret-tinged ghost only she can see, and a decision made by the cat himself. Edgar, sharp-eyed and gray, is going home with her — a fact he has settled before she has finished filling out the paperwork.
The shelter sits in a coastal town where the fog rolls in and stays as long as it likes, and Hazel quickly learns the staff is a maze of secrets. The attack on the volunteer has been brushed off as an accident — too quickly, in her opinion. The ghost is not satisfied. Neither is Edgar, who has opinions and will share them. Together the three of them start asking the questions no one at the shelter wants answered.
A conspiracy-obsessed janitor, long at odds with the victim, insists he was the real target — and may not be wrong. A fast-talking grant writer, shaken and evasive, has every reason to dread what an investigation will turn up. Add a missing rescue dog, muddy pawprints leading into the coastal fog, hushed conversations behind closed doors, and a box of secrets buried in the sand. If Hazel and Edgar cannot piece the truth together in time, the shelter will fall — and the past will stay buried with it.
What Readers Are Saying: Just launched — reader reviews are still coming in.
“A stubborn gray cat with strong opinions, a regret-tinged ghost who refuses to stay quiet, and a coastal animal shelter full of secrets. Becca Garner is a new voice in the paranormal cozy lane, and her launch reviews are still rolling in. If you love amateur sleuths with sharp-eyed animal sidekicks, take time to discover this new author..”
Love Small-Town Mysteries?
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Harbor Days Trilogy by Wren Ashwood
A storm-battered inn, a lighthouse with a dark past, and a festival that ends in murder. Follow Maggie Dawson through three connected mysteries in the atmospheric seaside town of Whispering Pines.
A storm-battered inn. A lighthouse with something to hide. A seaside festival that ends in murder.
When Maggie Dawson takes over the Larkspur Inn in Whispering Pines, she expects demanding guests and coastal storms — not a dead body in the parlor on her very first night. Trapped inside by wind and rain, Maggie is forced to untangle grudges, missing money, and lies that refuse to stay quiet.
At the town’s old lighthouse, a man is found drowned inside a bone-dry chamber. As secrets tied to legacy and reputation surface, Maggie begins to see how carefully Whispering Pines protects its past — and how dangerous it can be to question it.
Then Harbor Days arrives. Lights, music, packed inns — and a beloved sailor dead beneath the Ferris wheel. Police call it an accident. Maggie doesn’t. With rivalries flaring and old conflicts dragged into the open, she must uncover the truth before the festival claims another life.
The Harbor Days Trilogy is a complete Maggie Dawson mystery arc filled with coastal charm, quiet intuition, found family, and a cat who always seems to know when something isn’t right.
“There is something so atmospheric about a storm-battered inn and a lighthouse with secrets. As an author who loves a good ‘locked-in’ mystery, Maggie Dawson’s intuition—and her very observant cat—made this trilogy a page-turner for me!”
Love Small-Town Mysteries?
If you enjoyed this spotlight, you'll love my Weekly Notebook. Every Saturday, I share a curated round-up of the best cozy mysteries, plus exclusive updates on my own Jenna McGregor Mystery Series.
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