Snowed In & Shut Out
(2025)(The fifth book in the Pawprints & Pour-Over Mystery series)
A novel by Hailey Hartley
When a massive blizzard descends on Glacier Ridge without warning, coffee shop owner Brooke Callahan finds herself trapped inside The Snowdrift Café with an unexpected group of guests: her two employees, three regular customers, and Gordon Hayes—the ruthless real estate developer nobody wanted to be stuck with in the first place. Gordon has spent months pressuring local business owners to sell their properties, making threats and enemies at every turn, and his presence turns what should be a cozy refuge from the storm into a powder keg of tension and old grudges. But when Brooke discovers Gordon's body in the storage room beneath a collapsed shelving unit, what looks like a tragic accident during the storm quickly reveals itself as cold-blooded murder. With roads buried under three feet of snow and phone lines dead, Brooke realizes the killer is still trapped inside the café with them, and time is running out to find the truth.
Armed with her sharp instincts and hindered by her fluffy white Persian cat Blizzard—who has an unfortunate habit of napping on crucial evidence at the worst possible moments—Brooke teams up with mystery-loving bookstore owner Liam Cross and observant elementary school teacher Paige Sterling to figure out which of their fellow "guests" is a murderer. As they carefully examine security footage, piece together alibis, and question the stranded group, Brooke discovers that Gordon had been running a systematic blackmail operation, using private investigators to dig up secrets and exploit vulnerabilities to force property sales at below-market prices. From financial fraud to family crises and desperate measures to save beloved businesses, Gordon's ruthless tactics had pushed someone past their breaking point. But as Brooke gets closer to identifying the killer, threatening notes and tampered evidence make it clear that the murderer isn't finished yet, and with no escape until the plows arrive, she must solve the case before anyone else dies.
Full of warmth, humor, and the perfect blend of amateur sleuthing, Snowed In & Shut Out is a cozy mystery that proves even in the closest quarters, secrets can hide in plain sight. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for a mystery where a winter storm creates the perfect locked-room puzzle, where a cat's perfectly-timed nap might reveal the killer, and where the truth is worth fighting for—even when you're trapped with a murderer and nowhere to run.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Armed with her sharp instincts and hindered by her fluffy white Persian cat Blizzard—who has an unfortunate habit of napping on crucial evidence at the worst possible moments—Brooke teams up with mystery-loving bookstore owner Liam Cross and observant elementary school teacher Paige Sterling to figure out which of their fellow "guests" is a murderer. As they carefully examine security footage, piece together alibis, and question the stranded group, Brooke discovers that Gordon had been running a systematic blackmail operation, using private investigators to dig up secrets and exploit vulnerabilities to force property sales at below-market prices. From financial fraud to family crises and desperate measures to save beloved businesses, Gordon's ruthless tactics had pushed someone past their breaking point. But as Brooke gets closer to identifying the killer, threatening notes and tampered evidence make it clear that the murderer isn't finished yet, and with no escape until the plows arrive, she must solve the case before anyone else dies.
Full of warmth, humor, and the perfect blend of amateur sleuthing, Snowed In & Shut Out is a cozy mystery that proves even in the closest quarters, secrets can hide in plain sight. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for a mystery where a winter storm creates the perfect locked-room puzzle, where a cat's perfectly-timed nap might reveal the killer, and where the truth is worth fighting for—even when you're trapped with a murderer and nowhere to run.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Hailey Hartley's Snowed In & Shut Out