A Very Haunted Murder
(2026)(The fifth book in the Bizzy Devlin Cozy Mystery series)
A Story by TJ Costello
The dog came as a lobster.
Photographer Bizzy Devlin has one job this October evening: scout the old Jordan house before Sunday's listing shoot. Instead she finds a body sprawled across the porch steps, until its maker steps out of the dusk. A special-effects artist, rehearsing with corn syrup and food dye. A practical joke.
Two days later, the police tape is real. For twenty years, the late Obie Jordan carved his opinions into prize-winning jack-o'-lanterns: about a selectman, about a neighbor, about things he would never say to your face but would absolutely say to a pumpkin. Nobody in Pullen Pointe wants to look too closely at them now, and Bizzy owns the one thing in town that can read them: twenty years of festival photographs.
By five o'clock, Main Street has convicted a suspect. Bizzy thinks it's the wrong one. She and Jacko have one Halloween night, a studio full of old pictures, and a Labradoodle in full costume to get through before whoever it is decides she has been looking too hard.
Luigi did not consent to the lobster costume. He is solving this case out of spite.
Book 5 of the Bizzy Devlin Cozy Mysteries. A Halloween novella and a fair-play whodunit wrapped in crisp October light, small-town Halloween chaos, and one very good dog: every clue on the page so you can solve it right alongside Bizzy and Jacko, no gore, no cliffhangers. Each mystery stands alone, and the town is best moved into from Book 1.
Amateur sleuth Dog cozy mystery Halloween cozy Small-town New England Clean & cozy
Genre: Mystery
Photographer Bizzy Devlin has one job this October evening: scout the old Jordan house before Sunday's listing shoot. Instead she finds a body sprawled across the porch steps, until its maker steps out of the dusk. A special-effects artist, rehearsing with corn syrup and food dye. A practical joke.
Two days later, the police tape is real. For twenty years, the late Obie Jordan carved his opinions into prize-winning jack-o'-lanterns: about a selectman, about a neighbor, about things he would never say to your face but would absolutely say to a pumpkin. Nobody in Pullen Pointe wants to look too closely at them now, and Bizzy owns the one thing in town that can read them: twenty years of festival photographs.
By five o'clock, Main Street has convicted a suspect. Bizzy thinks it's the wrong one. She and Jacko have one Halloween night, a studio full of old pictures, and a Labradoodle in full costume to get through before whoever it is decides she has been looking too hard.
Luigi did not consent to the lobster costume. He is solving this case out of spite.
Book 5 of the Bizzy Devlin Cozy Mysteries. A Halloween novella and a fair-play whodunit wrapped in crisp October light, small-town Halloween chaos, and one very good dog: every clue on the page so you can solve it right alongside Bizzy and Jacko, no gore, no cliffhangers. Each mystery stands alone, and the town is best moved into from Book 1.
Amateur sleuth Dog cozy mystery Halloween cozy Small-town New England Clean & cozy
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for TJ Costello's A Very Haunted Murder