Death at Sam's Mine
(2026)(The fifth book in the Tilly Lafleur Mystery series)
A novel by Maisie Graves
Balsam Bay has debated reopening Samuel Melvin’s abandoned gold mine for years.
Someone has stopped waiting for the town to decide.
The town calls it the Melvin mine. Lately, Tilly Lafleur has caught herself calling it Sam’s.
Prospectors Weekend coaxes everyone back outdoors, with bannock over open fires, the Junior Prospectors’ Treasure Hunt, and a pie competition the Balsam Belles treat as a matter of civic honour. Half of Balsam Bay spends the weekend learning to stake a claim.
Nobody notices someone has already staked a real one.
Then months of research vanish from a festival booth. The author is dismissed as a crank, but Tilly isn’t so sure. Someone thought his work was worth stealing.
Days later, the loudest voice for reopening the mine is found dead inside one of the mine’s old bunkhouses.
With her watchful dog Des at her side and her daughter Callie keeping the town talking, Tilly finds that every trail leads back to the mine.
The RCMP are closing in on a suspect. Balsam Bay is already choosing the story it wants to believe.
Both are wrong.
Death at Sam’s Mine is the fifth book in the Tilly Lafleur Mysteries—a small-town cozy mystery series with real stakes, buried secrets, and page-turning twists.
For readers who enjoy cozy mysteries where each case uncovers something deeper.
Genre: Mystery
Someone has stopped waiting for the town to decide.
The town calls it the Melvin mine. Lately, Tilly Lafleur has caught herself calling it Sam’s.
Prospectors Weekend coaxes everyone back outdoors, with bannock over open fires, the Junior Prospectors’ Treasure Hunt, and a pie competition the Balsam Belles treat as a matter of civic honour. Half of Balsam Bay spends the weekend learning to stake a claim.
Nobody notices someone has already staked a real one.
Then months of research vanish from a festival booth. The author is dismissed as a crank, but Tilly isn’t so sure. Someone thought his work was worth stealing.
Days later, the loudest voice for reopening the mine is found dead inside one of the mine’s old bunkhouses.
With her watchful dog Des at her side and her daughter Callie keeping the town talking, Tilly finds that every trail leads back to the mine.
The RCMP are closing in on a suspect. Balsam Bay is already choosing the story it wants to believe.
Both are wrong.
Death at Sam’s Mine is the fifth book in the Tilly Lafleur Mysteries—a small-town cozy mystery series with real stakes, buried secrets, and page-turning twists.
For readers who enjoy cozy mysteries where each case uncovers something deeper.
Genre: Mystery