Death by Design
(2025)(The second book in the Renovation and Homicide Mystery series)
A novel by Grace Greenwood and Maisy Marple
When renovation reveals murder, graphic designer Zoey Parker discovers that some secrets are worth killing for—twice.
Three months after solving a fifteen-year-old murder in her own basement, Zoey Parker is finally settling into small-town life in charming Pinecrest. Her Victorian home is beautifully restored, her graphic design business is thriving, and her romance with Detective Jack Sullivan is slowly blossoming. When the town's historic train station renovation project needs promotional materials, Zoey eagerly volunteers—after all, what could go wrong with a simple community project?
Everything, as it turns out.
During the committee's first walkthrough, Zoey's golden retriever Max makes another grisly discovery: a body walled up in a forgotten storage room. The victim is Harold Winters, a project manager who supposedly quit and left town five years earlier. But Harold didn't leave Pinecrest—he was murdered to keep a devastating secret buried.
As Zoey and Detective Sullivan investigate, they uncover a web of corner-cutting construction practices that have left buildings throughout Pinecrest dangerously compromised. When the killer begins threatening Zoey directly, the stakes escalate beyond solving a cold case to preventing more deaths. But the truth behind Harold's murder reaches back nearly two centuries, involving Pinecrest's founding families in a conspiracy that some will kill to keep hidden.
With Max's uncanny ability to sniff out evidence and Zoey's eye for detail, they must race to expose the killer before he silences everyone who knows the truth. Because in Pinecrest, renovating old buildings isn't just about preserving history—sometimes it means digging up secrets that powerful people have spent generations trying to bury.
Genre: Mystery
Three months after solving a fifteen-year-old murder in her own basement, Zoey Parker is finally settling into small-town life in charming Pinecrest. Her Victorian home is beautifully restored, her graphic design business is thriving, and her romance with Detective Jack Sullivan is slowly blossoming. When the town's historic train station renovation project needs promotional materials, Zoey eagerly volunteers—after all, what could go wrong with a simple community project?
Everything, as it turns out.
During the committee's first walkthrough, Zoey's golden retriever Max makes another grisly discovery: a body walled up in a forgotten storage room. The victim is Harold Winters, a project manager who supposedly quit and left town five years earlier. But Harold didn't leave Pinecrest—he was murdered to keep a devastating secret buried.
As Zoey and Detective Sullivan investigate, they uncover a web of corner-cutting construction practices that have left buildings throughout Pinecrest dangerously compromised. When the killer begins threatening Zoey directly, the stakes escalate beyond solving a cold case to preventing more deaths. But the truth behind Harold's murder reaches back nearly two centuries, involving Pinecrest's founding families in a conspiracy that some will kill to keep hidden.
With Max's uncanny ability to sniff out evidence and Zoey's eye for detail, they must race to expose the killer before he silences everyone who knows the truth. Because in Pinecrest, renovating old buildings isn't just about preserving history—sometimes it means digging up secrets that powerful people have spent generations trying to bury.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Maisy Marple's Death by Design