Fire at Saint Orla's Home
(2026)(The second book in the Hartfall County Sheriff Mystery series)
A novel by Claire Bessey
Sheriff Naomi Hart has barely finished exposing the truth behind the murder on Hartfall Ridge when her mother’s hidden warning points her toward a place Hartfall County has tried hard to forget: Saint Orla’s Home.
Officially, Saint Orla’s was a former church-affiliated children’s home that closed years ago after funding problems, liability concerns, and structural decay. To the town, it is just the old children’s place beyond the cemetery road. But Naomi has learned that soft words in Hartfall often hide hard truths. When Lydia Hart left a note telling her to check Saint Orla'''s before someone burned it clean, Naomi knows the building is not just old. It is dangerous.
Then Saint Orla’s catches fire.
The flames rip through the west records room, destroying exactly the part of the building that may have held proof of what happened there. Inside, investigators find Marion Keel, a former records aide who had been trying to tell the truth. Another man, maintenance worker Aaron Sipes, is found dead in the service hall. And worse, Naomi learns that Noah Pell, a fourteen-year-old boy with no safe place to go, may have been sleeping unofficially in the old laundry wing.
Now Naomi is facing more than arson. She is facing a system.
With Deputy Rowan Voss, her aging search-and-rescue dog Atlas, and Silas Creed, whose missing brother may be tied to Saint Orla’s old records, Naomi follows a trail of burned files, missing children, altered placement documents, and people who used the word mercy to disguise cruelty. Every answer leads to another sealed room, another softened report, another adult who claims they were only trying to protect the vulnerable.
But Marion Keel did not die in the fire.
She was killed before it.
Fire at Saint Orla’s Home is an atmospheric small-town sheriff mystery with arson, buried county secrets, missing children, cold-case suspense, mountain danger, a loyal search dog, and a strong female sheriff determined to uncover what powerful people have hidden for decades.
Perfect for readers who enjoy Montana crime fiction, small-town sheriff mysteries, clean murder mysteries, cold-case investigations, female sheriff protagonists, search dog mysteries, dark family secrets, and suspenseful mountain crime series where every old file has a cost.
Genre: Mystery
Officially, Saint Orla’s was a former church-affiliated children’s home that closed years ago after funding problems, liability concerns, and structural decay. To the town, it is just the old children’s place beyond the cemetery road. But Naomi has learned that soft words in Hartfall often hide hard truths. When Lydia Hart left a note telling her to check Saint Orla'''s before someone burned it clean, Naomi knows the building is not just old. It is dangerous.
Then Saint Orla’s catches fire.
The flames rip through the west records room, destroying exactly the part of the building that may have held proof of what happened there. Inside, investigators find Marion Keel, a former records aide who had been trying to tell the truth. Another man, maintenance worker Aaron Sipes, is found dead in the service hall. And worse, Naomi learns that Noah Pell, a fourteen-year-old boy with no safe place to go, may have been sleeping unofficially in the old laundry wing.
Now Naomi is facing more than arson. She is facing a system.
With Deputy Rowan Voss, her aging search-and-rescue dog Atlas, and Silas Creed, whose missing brother may be tied to Saint Orla’s old records, Naomi follows a trail of burned files, missing children, altered placement documents, and people who used the word mercy to disguise cruelty. Every answer leads to another sealed room, another softened report, another adult who claims they were only trying to protect the vulnerable.
But Marion Keel did not die in the fire.
She was killed before it.
Fire at Saint Orla’s Home is an atmospheric small-town sheriff mystery with arson, buried county secrets, missing children, cold-case suspense, mountain danger, a loyal search dog, and a strong female sheriff determined to uncover what powerful people have hidden for decades.
Perfect for readers who enjoy Montana crime fiction, small-town sheriff mysteries, clean murder mysteries, cold-case investigations, female sheriff protagonists, search dog mysteries, dark family secrets, and suspenseful mountain crime series where every old file has a cost.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Claire Bessey's Fire at Saint Orla's Home