Murder Behind the Blue Wallpaper
(2026)(The fourth book in the Brindlehook Inn Mystery series)
A novel by Claire Bessey
Cassie Vale thought renovating the closed East Wing of Brindlehook Inn would finally give her something ordinary to worry about: dust, repair bills, bad wiring, and the terrifying cost of restoring an old seaside building.
She should have known better.
When Fig, the inn’s one-eyed tortoiseshell cat, keeps scratching at a strip of faded blue wallpaper, Cassie expects mice, damp plaster, or another expensive surprise. Instead, she finds a sealed space behind the wall. Inside are a child’s suitcase, a cracked photograph, and a locked tin box that someone clearly wanted hidden.
The suitcase carries two names: Mira Rook and Mira Pikewell.
One girl. Two identities. One inheritance that vanished on paper.
Before Cassie can untangle what happened to the child who once stayed in the East Wing, antiques dealer Odette Crane turns up dead in the half-renovated room. The death appears sudden at first, but the details do not fit. Odette’s tea cup has no lipstick mark. Ruth Bell’s kitchen thermos has the wrong lid. Lemon shortbread crumbs sit beside the wrong chair. And someone at Brindlehook Inn knew exactly what Odette had discovered.
As Deputy Wren Calder investigates the murder, Cassie follows the clues through old guardianship notices, family photographs, renovation notes, tea service records, and the carefully protected reputation of Brindlehook Harbor’s civic families. The deeper she digs, the clearer the truth becomes: the East Wing did not hide treasure. It hid proof that a child was renamed, relocated, and written out of what should have been hers.
With restoration carpenter Miles Arden caught in another uncomfortable piece of the inn’s repair history, Cassie must decide how much trust can survive when old family records keep turning dangerous. Meanwhile, Graham Voss keeps circling the case with polished concern, and Laurel Pike seems far too worried about how the town’s past will look in public.
But this time, the secret is not buried in mud or lost in old ledgers. It is behind the wallpaper, inside the walls of the inn Cassie is trying to save.
Murder Behind the Blue Wallpaper is Book 4 in The Brindlehook Inn Mysteries, a clean coastal cozy mystery series featuring a historic inn, small-town secrets, amateur sleuthing, slow-burn romance, renovation trouble, old family lies, and a sharp one-eyed cat who always finds what someone tried to hide.
Perfect for readers who enjoy clean cozy mysteries, historic inn mysteries, coastal small-town mysteries, cozy mysteries with cats, amateur sleuth mysteries, renovation mysteries, family secrets, inheritance mysteries, and character-driven mystery series with a continuing town mystery arc.
At Brindlehook Inn, every closed room has a reason, every family story has a missing page, and Fig the cat knows exactly where the truth has been covered over.
Genre: Mystery
She should have known better.
When Fig, the inn’s one-eyed tortoiseshell cat, keeps scratching at a strip of faded blue wallpaper, Cassie expects mice, damp plaster, or another expensive surprise. Instead, she finds a sealed space behind the wall. Inside are a child’s suitcase, a cracked photograph, and a locked tin box that someone clearly wanted hidden.
The suitcase carries two names: Mira Rook and Mira Pikewell.
One girl. Two identities. One inheritance that vanished on paper.
Before Cassie can untangle what happened to the child who once stayed in the East Wing, antiques dealer Odette Crane turns up dead in the half-renovated room. The death appears sudden at first, but the details do not fit. Odette’s tea cup has no lipstick mark. Ruth Bell’s kitchen thermos has the wrong lid. Lemon shortbread crumbs sit beside the wrong chair. And someone at Brindlehook Inn knew exactly what Odette had discovered.
As Deputy Wren Calder investigates the murder, Cassie follows the clues through old guardianship notices, family photographs, renovation notes, tea service records, and the carefully protected reputation of Brindlehook Harbor’s civic families. The deeper she digs, the clearer the truth becomes: the East Wing did not hide treasure. It hid proof that a child was renamed, relocated, and written out of what should have been hers.
With restoration carpenter Miles Arden caught in another uncomfortable piece of the inn’s repair history, Cassie must decide how much trust can survive when old family records keep turning dangerous. Meanwhile, Graham Voss keeps circling the case with polished concern, and Laurel Pike seems far too worried about how the town’s past will look in public.
But this time, the secret is not buried in mud or lost in old ledgers. It is behind the wallpaper, inside the walls of the inn Cassie is trying to save.
Murder Behind the Blue Wallpaper is Book 4 in The Brindlehook Inn Mysteries, a clean coastal cozy mystery series featuring a historic inn, small-town secrets, amateur sleuthing, slow-burn romance, renovation trouble, old family lies, and a sharp one-eyed cat who always finds what someone tried to hide.
Perfect for readers who enjoy clean cozy mysteries, historic inn mysteries, coastal small-town mysteries, cozy mysteries with cats, amateur sleuth mysteries, renovation mysteries, family secrets, inheritance mysteries, and character-driven mystery series with a continuing town mystery arc.
At Brindlehook Inn, every closed room has a reason, every family story has a missing page, and Fig the cat knows exactly where the truth has been covered over.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Claire Bessey's Murder Behind the Blue Wallpaper