Dread amid Dragons
(2026)(The ninth book in the Mystic Haven Tea Shop Mystery series)
A novel by TJ Costello and Kat McGee
Fiona Shaw finally found everything she never knew she wanted: a thriving tea shop inherited from a murdered stranger, a community that's slowly accepted her, and the possibility of love with a certain handsome handyman. Someone's about to take it all away with one perfectly framed murder.
The timing couldn't be worse. Just when Fiona's transformed Nell's legacy into a successful business, her relationship with Rowan is deepening beyond friendship, and Mystic Haven feels like the home she's been searching for her entire life, someone decides to destroy it all with an enchanted baby dragon statue and a dead councilman. The evidence against her is so perfectly constructed that even she's starting to wonder if she's capable of magic she didn't remember.
Councilman Aldrich had been making Fiona's life difficult for months, filing complaints about her business permits, questioning her right to inherit from a woman she'd never met, and generally making it clear that outsiders weren't welcome in his vision of Mystic Haven. His crushed body beneath the reanimated baby dragon statue looks like the ultimate revenge, especially with her red teapot glowing with residual animation magic and multiple witnesses placing her at the scene. The fact that she was sleepwalking through a magically induced fog only makes her look guiltier.
Everything she's built from Nell's mysterious bequest is crumbling faster than over-steeped tea leaves. Customers are canceling orders, the town council is discussing whether convicted murderers can maintain business licenses, and even Rowan is struggling to defend someone who might have committed murder in her sleep. With Theo as her only unwavering ally and her own memories proving unreliable, Fiona must solve a mystery designed to end the life she's just begun to love.
Someone's orchestrated the perfect crime to eliminate her from Mystic Haven permanently, and if she can't prove her innocence, she'll lose everything: her business, her home, and the man who's been teaching her that some risks are worth taking. The killer's betting that she'll run rather than fight, but they clearly never met a woman who's finally found something worth defending.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
The timing couldn't be worse. Just when Fiona's transformed Nell's legacy into a successful business, her relationship with Rowan is deepening beyond friendship, and Mystic Haven feels like the home she's been searching for her entire life, someone decides to destroy it all with an enchanted baby dragon statue and a dead councilman. The evidence against her is so perfectly constructed that even she's starting to wonder if she's capable of magic she didn't remember.
Councilman Aldrich had been making Fiona's life difficult for months, filing complaints about her business permits, questioning her right to inherit from a woman she'd never met, and generally making it clear that outsiders weren't welcome in his vision of Mystic Haven. His crushed body beneath the reanimated baby dragon statue looks like the ultimate revenge, especially with her red teapot glowing with residual animation magic and multiple witnesses placing her at the scene. The fact that she was sleepwalking through a magically induced fog only makes her look guiltier.
Everything she's built from Nell's mysterious bequest is crumbling faster than over-steeped tea leaves. Customers are canceling orders, the town council is discussing whether convicted murderers can maintain business licenses, and even Rowan is struggling to defend someone who might have committed murder in her sleep. With Theo as her only unwavering ally and her own memories proving unreliable, Fiona must solve a mystery designed to end the life she's just begun to love.
Someone's orchestrated the perfect crime to eliminate her from Mystic Haven permanently, and if she can't prove her innocence, she'll lose everything: her business, her home, and the man who's been teaching her that some risks are worth taking. The killer's betting that she'll run rather than fight, but they clearly never met a woman who's finally found something worth defending.
Genre: Cozy Mystery