A quiet town.
A deliberate fire.
A spark that wasn’t an accident.
When a building tied to Maplewood’s coastal fishery goes up in flames, the town is shaken awake. It was supposed to be empty.
It wasn’t.
One life is lost. Another is saved only because Dr. Caleb Rowan runs into the smoke without hesitation—emerging burned, shaken, and suddenly seen as something Maplewood rarely questions.
A hero.
But Owen Harper isn’t convinced the story ends there.
Fires don’t start themselves. And this one was set on purpose.
As the town settles into a version of events it can live with, Owen and Police Chief Grace Miller begin pulling at the edges: a firing that ended in threats, a rival who stood to gain, and details that don’t quite fit the story taking hold.
Then someone mentions a red shirt near the scene.
And the fire stops looking like an isolated act.
Because in Maplewood, what matters isn’t just what happens.
It’s how quickly it’s explained—and how much gets left out.
With suspicion rising, loyalties shifting, and the truth growing harder to contain, Owen must decide what he’s willing to challenge… and what it will cost to do it.
A Spark Most Deadly is the fourth book in The Maplewood Mysteries, a cozy mystery series about quiet courage, shifting trust, and the truths small towns keep until they can’t anymore.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
A deliberate fire.
A spark that wasn’t an accident.
When a building tied to Maplewood’s coastal fishery goes up in flames, the town is shaken awake. It was supposed to be empty.
It wasn’t.
One life is lost. Another is saved only because Dr. Caleb Rowan runs into the smoke without hesitation—emerging burned, shaken, and suddenly seen as something Maplewood rarely questions.
A hero.
But Owen Harper isn’t convinced the story ends there.
Fires don’t start themselves. And this one was set on purpose.
As the town settles into a version of events it can live with, Owen and Police Chief Grace Miller begin pulling at the edges: a firing that ended in threats, a rival who stood to gain, and details that don’t quite fit the story taking hold.
Then someone mentions a red shirt near the scene.
And the fire stops looking like an isolated act.
Because in Maplewood, what matters isn’t just what happens.
It’s how quickly it’s explained—and how much gets left out.
With suspicion rising, loyalties shifting, and the truth growing harder to contain, Owen must decide what he’s willing to challenge… and what it will cost to do it.
A Spark Most Deadly is the fourth book in The Maplewood Mysteries, a cozy mystery series about quiet courage, shifting trust, and the truths small towns keep until they can’t anymore.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Julian Brooks's A Spark Most Deadly