Murder at Cairn Cove

About this book

A building permit. A tidal cave. And a Guardian who has been keeping his silence for four years.

Cairn Cove, Maine sits at the end of a peninsula the way certain people sit at the back of a room — not because there is nothing to say, but because they have learned to be careful who they say it to. Population 380. One dock. One general store. One man named Gideon Cole who does not let anyone near his cove.

The file has been on Sam's desk since Monday. She opens it on Wednesday.

SAM BLACKWOOD — retired homicide detective, reluctant witch, and owner of one thoroughly opinionated dog — has worked three nodes. She knows the pattern by now. Owen sends the preliminary. The threat is already in motion. The Guardian is not ready. She is never quite ready either.

Node Four is a tidal cave beneath a rocky point on the Harpswell Peninsula. A developer named Marcus Hale has filed a building permit. The site includes the cave. The planning authority's decision is expected in ten to fourteen days.

Victor Hale was his brother. She had been sitting with that since Monday.

Joining the investigation:

✦ Gideon Cole — a 61-year-old former fisherman who received a letter he did not want, went to a cave he could not explain, and has been keeping his silence ever since; a man whose grandfather taught him a word for the water that had nothing to do with fishing

✦ Moss — who will resolve the question of whether Gideon Cole can be trusted in approximately ninety seconds, before Sam has said anything at all

✦ Rowan — already on the road. He packed warmer than last time.

✦ Marta Voss — who calls at midnight, says one sentence, and hangs up before questions are possible; what she knows about the Foundation will change the shape of everything

✦ Ezra — at the window, as always; the ring on Sam's right hand is the warmth of his presence and the pulse of the node and she has learned, mostly, to tell the difference

The previous Guardian died four years ago. The official determination was accidental drowning. The Foundation has been at this since 1849.

Can Sam activate a node that only surfaces at low tide — in February, in the dark, with a window of thirty-five minutes — before the permit is approved and the cave is gone?

And what does it mean that she is starting to recognize the handwriting?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "The cave sequence hit me somewhere I wasn't expecting. I read the last thirty pages without moving." — ARC Reader

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Gideon Cole is the best new character in the series. The scene with Moss — I knew immediately." — ARC Reader

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "February in Maine has never felt so alive. Or so dangerous." — ARC Reader

Perfect for fans of Angie Fox and Nellie H. Steele.

Murder at Cairn Cove is Book 5 in The Moonhaven Mysteries series. Each book works as a standalone, but the story is richer when read in order.

The tide window opens at 2:47 a.m. Don't be late.