When history teacher Peter Harrington and his Bernese Mountain Dog, Theo, arrive in the charming town of Cedar Ridge, they're hoping for a fresh start after Peter's decade in museum curation. But their peaceful new beginning is upended when five student essays for the prestigious Historical Essay Contest mysteriously vanish from the faculty room safe. Principal Foster, desperate to avoid scandal, turns to Peter's expertise in document authentication and security. What begins as a simple search for missing papers quickly transforms into something far more complex when Peter discovers one essay contains research challenging the town's cherished founding narrative—research that powerful local families would prefer remained buried.
As Peter investigates, he finds allies in blunt-spoken math teacher Vivian Cooper and eccentric librarian Howard Jenkins, but also encounters resistance from those determined to control Cedar Ridge's historical narrative. With the school's bicentennial celebration approaching, tensions rise as Peter uncovers evidence suggesting someone not only stole the essays but attempted to modify their content. Guided by his historian's eye for patterns and assisted by Theo's uncanny ability to sniff out clues, Peter methodically connects the dots between missing documents, altered historical timelines, and generations of carefully maintained mythology.
With the deadline for announcing the contest winner rapidly approaching, Peter must navigate small-town politics and long-established power structures to ensure historical truth isn't sacrificed for comfortable narratives. In Cedar Ridge, where founding family names still open doors and influence decisions, Peter's commitment to historical accuracy makes him both an outsider and a threat. But as he pieces together the evidence, he discovers that in a town obsessed with its past, the most dangerous thing might be revealing that history is rarely as simple—or as honorable—as the stories we tell about it.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
As Peter investigates, he finds allies in blunt-spoken math teacher Vivian Cooper and eccentric librarian Howard Jenkins, but also encounters resistance from those determined to control Cedar Ridge's historical narrative. With the school's bicentennial celebration approaching, tensions rise as Peter uncovers evidence suggesting someone not only stole the essays but attempted to modify their content. Guided by his historian's eye for patterns and assisted by Theo's uncanny ability to sniff out clues, Peter methodically connects the dots between missing documents, altered historical timelines, and generations of carefully maintained mythology.
With the deadline for announcing the contest winner rapidly approaching, Peter must navigate small-town politics and long-established power structures to ensure historical truth isn't sacrificed for comfortable narratives. In Cedar Ridge, where founding family names still open doors and influence decisions, Peter's commitment to historical accuracy makes him both an outsider and a threat. But as he pieces together the evidence, he discovers that in a town obsessed with its past, the most dangerous thing might be revealing that history is rarely as simple—or as honorable—as the stories we tell about it.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
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