Murder at the Tipsy Moon
(2026)(The fourth book in the Moonbreak Island Witch Mystery series)
A novel by Claire Bessey
Maris Vale wanted a fresh start. She got a beach bar, a talking parrot, and a murder mystery that refuses to stay buried.
After a reckless resort heir nearly kills her in a drunken electric-cart accident, Maris accepts an unusual settlement from the luxurious Moonbreak Grand Resort: ownership of The Tipsy Moon, a weathered cocktail bar tucked against the sand on Moonbreak Island. It sounds like paradise. Ocean air, moonlit cocktails, steady tourists, and a chance to rebuild her life on her own terms.
Then a bridesmaid vanishes.
Carys Bell disappears during a lavish destination wedding after asking too many questions about the resort’s forbidden lantern path. Management wants to call it wedding drama. The family wants answers. The police want facts. And Maris wants to know why her stormglass pendant reacts every time someone mentions the old beach boundary.
Maris is not an ordinary bar owner. She is a weather witch from a family that has kept too many secrets, and The Tipsy Moon is not the lucky break she thought it was. Something old is buried under the bar. Something dangerous waits beyond the lanterns. And Rumor, her loud, thieving blue-fronted parrot, keeps repeating a phrase no one alive should have taught him:
‘Past the lanterns.’
When private investigator Rafe Calder arrives looking for the missing woman, he immediately realizes Maris is hiding something. He is controlled, sharp, irritatingly observant, and far too good at noticing half-truths. Maris does not trust him. Rafe does not trust her. Unfortunately, both of them are asking the same questions, and Moonbreak Island has a nasty habit of punishing anyone who gets too close to the truth.
As Maris and Rafe dig deeper, Carys’s disappearance begins to connect to another missing woman, hidden staff routes, altered resort records, and a night concierge who smiles too easily. The pretty beach resort starts to look less like a vacation paradise and more like a trap built from money, silence, and old sea magic.
To find Carys alive, Maris must decide who to trust, how much of her magic to reveal, and whether The Tipsy Moon was ever really given to her at all.
Because on Moonbreak Island, some paths should never be crossed alone.
Murder at the Tipsy Moon is the first book in The Moonbreak Island Witch Mysteries, a clean paranormal cozy mystery series filled with beach resort secrets, witchcraft, slow-burn romantic tension, supernatural danger, clever clues, and a parrot who steals anything shiny enough to become evidence.
Perfect for readers who enjoy witch cozy mysteries, paranormal cozy mystery series, beach cozy mysteries, clean cozy mysteries with romance, amateur sleuth mysteries, resort murder mysteries, and cozy mysteries with pets.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
After a reckless resort heir nearly kills her in a drunken electric-cart accident, Maris accepts an unusual settlement from the luxurious Moonbreak Grand Resort: ownership of The Tipsy Moon, a weathered cocktail bar tucked against the sand on Moonbreak Island. It sounds like paradise. Ocean air, moonlit cocktails, steady tourists, and a chance to rebuild her life on her own terms.
Then a bridesmaid vanishes.
Carys Bell disappears during a lavish destination wedding after asking too many questions about the resort’s forbidden lantern path. Management wants to call it wedding drama. The family wants answers. The police want facts. And Maris wants to know why her stormglass pendant reacts every time someone mentions the old beach boundary.
Maris is not an ordinary bar owner. She is a weather witch from a family that has kept too many secrets, and The Tipsy Moon is not the lucky break she thought it was. Something old is buried under the bar. Something dangerous waits beyond the lanterns. And Rumor, her loud, thieving blue-fronted parrot, keeps repeating a phrase no one alive should have taught him:
‘Past the lanterns.’
When private investigator Rafe Calder arrives looking for the missing woman, he immediately realizes Maris is hiding something. He is controlled, sharp, irritatingly observant, and far too good at noticing half-truths. Maris does not trust him. Rafe does not trust her. Unfortunately, both of them are asking the same questions, and Moonbreak Island has a nasty habit of punishing anyone who gets too close to the truth.
As Maris and Rafe dig deeper, Carys’s disappearance begins to connect to another missing woman, hidden staff routes, altered resort records, and a night concierge who smiles too easily. The pretty beach resort starts to look less like a vacation paradise and more like a trap built from money, silence, and old sea magic.
To find Carys alive, Maris must decide who to trust, how much of her magic to reveal, and whether The Tipsy Moon was ever really given to her at all.
Because on Moonbreak Island, some paths should never be crossed alone.
Murder at the Tipsy Moon is the first book in The Moonbreak Island Witch Mysteries, a clean paranormal cozy mystery series filled with beach resort secrets, witchcraft, slow-burn romantic tension, supernatural danger, clever clues, and a parrot who steals anything shiny enough to become evidence.
Perfect for readers who enjoy witch cozy mysteries, paranormal cozy mystery series, beach cozy mysteries, clean cozy mysteries with romance, amateur sleuth mysteries, resort murder mysteries, and cozy mysteries with pets.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Used availability for Claire Bessey's Murder at the Tipsy Moon