Silent Grounds
(2025)(The fourth book in the Pawprints & Pour-Over Mystery series)
A novel by Hailey Hartley
When coffee shop owner Nora Bennett arrives at The Roasted Robin on a frigid January morning, she expects to find Walter Kim already inside brewing the first pot of the day, just like he has every morning for the past three years. Walter is more than her most reliable regular—he's family, the kind customer who shows up at dawn to help open and always orders medium roast, black, no sugar. But today the door hangs ajar, the alarm is mysteriously disabled, and Walter is lying dead behind the counter. With no signs of forced entry and only two people who know the alarm code, the police quickly focus their investigation on Nora. When the medical examiner confirms Walter was poisoned, Nora realizes someone has not only murdered her friend—they've carefully framed her for the crime.
Desperate to clear her name and terrified of losing everything she's built, Nora teams up with her pragmatic barista Finn O'Brien and sharp-tongued book club organizer Beth Nakamura to uncover what really happened to the gentle man who volunteered at the local community center and never had an enemy in the world. Armed with a cryptic notebook Walter left behind and hindered by Nora's temperamental Siamese cat Mocha—who has an unfortunate habit of sitting on crucial evidence at the worst possible moments—the unlikely trio discovers that Walter had been investigating something dangerous in the weeks before his death. As they dig through financial records, suspicious alibis, and small-town secrets, Nora and her friends realize that someone with everything to lose will stop at nothing to ensure the truth stays buried, and time is running out to prove that Walter's death was anything but accidental.
Full of warmth, humor, and the perfect blend of amateur sleuthing, Silent Grounds is a cozy mystery that celebrates loyalty, courage, and the quiet heroes who fight for justice. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for a mystery where trust is both a weapon and a shield, where a cat's chaos might just crack the case wide open, and where the truth is worth fighting for—even when your own freedom hangs in the balance.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Desperate to clear her name and terrified of losing everything she's built, Nora teams up with her pragmatic barista Finn O'Brien and sharp-tongued book club organizer Beth Nakamura to uncover what really happened to the gentle man who volunteered at the local community center and never had an enemy in the world. Armed with a cryptic notebook Walter left behind and hindered by Nora's temperamental Siamese cat Mocha—who has an unfortunate habit of sitting on crucial evidence at the worst possible moments—the unlikely trio discovers that Walter had been investigating something dangerous in the weeks before his death. As they dig through financial records, suspicious alibis, and small-town secrets, Nora and her friends realize that someone with everything to lose will stop at nothing to ensure the truth stays buried, and time is running out to prove that Walter's death was anything but accidental.
Full of warmth, humor, and the perfect blend of amateur sleuthing, Silent Grounds is a cozy mystery that celebrates loyalty, courage, and the quiet heroes who fight for justice. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for a mystery where trust is both a weapon and a shield, where a cat's chaos might just crack the case wide open, and where the truth is worth fighting for—even when your own freedom hangs in the balance.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Hailey Hartley's Silent Grounds