Scarlet Oaks and Shuttered Lives
(2025)(The fourth book in the Photographers and Foliage Mystery series)
A Story by Maisy Marple
Brooke Ashford traded war zones for coastal Maine, seeking peace in the picturesque town of Harborview after fifteen years of documenting humanity's darkest moments. Running a small photography gallery and teaching tourists how to capture autumn's brilliant display should be the quiet life she craves. But when the Lighthouse Photography Festival brings crowds of leaf-peepers and shutterbugs to town, it also brings Lauren Pendleton—a ruthless Boston developer who's spent three months systematically destroying local livelihoods through blackmail, threats, and predatory business practices. Within days, Lauren has made enemies of half the town, from the inn owner facing fabricated code violations to the boat captain being extorted over past mistakes. Brooke watches it all through her camera lens, her investigative instincts never quite dormant, documenting tensions that simmer just beneath Harborview's picture-perfect surface.
When Lauren is found dead at a scenic overlook in what appears to be a tragic heart attack, Brooke's photographer's eye catches details that don't add up. A missing memory card. Absent devices. The faint scent of bitter almonds in a travel mug. What looked like natural causes becomes suspicious death, then confirmed murder by cyanide poisoning. Suddenly, Brooke's festival photographs become crucial evidence, and her years of investigative experience make her both an asset to the police and a target for whoever wants the truth to stay buried. As threatening texts warn her to stop asking questions and her sweet assistant begins acting strangely, Brooke realizes the killer isn't some outside threat—it's someone she knows, someone she trusts, someone who's been hiding in plain sight while setting up an innocent friend to take the fall.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Maine's rocky coast wrapped in scarlet oaks and golden maples, this cozy mystery combines the beauty of autumn photography with a clever whodunit full of small-town secrets and complicated motives. Perfect for fans of amateur sleuths and second-chance stories, Scarlet Oaks and Shuttered Lives proves that you can leave the war zone behind, but you can't escape your need to document truth—even when that truth is murder, and seeking it might cost you everything you've built in your peaceful new home.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
When Lauren is found dead at a scenic overlook in what appears to be a tragic heart attack, Brooke's photographer's eye catches details that don't add up. A missing memory card. Absent devices. The faint scent of bitter almonds in a travel mug. What looked like natural causes becomes suspicious death, then confirmed murder by cyanide poisoning. Suddenly, Brooke's festival photographs become crucial evidence, and her years of investigative experience make her both an asset to the police and a target for whoever wants the truth to stay buried. As threatening texts warn her to stop asking questions and her sweet assistant begins acting strangely, Brooke realizes the killer isn't some outside threat—it's someone she knows, someone she trusts, someone who's been hiding in plain sight while setting up an innocent friend to take the fall.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Maine's rocky coast wrapped in scarlet oaks and golden maples, this cozy mystery combines the beauty of autumn photography with a clever whodunit full of small-town secrets and complicated motives. Perfect for fans of amateur sleuths and second-chance stories, Scarlet Oaks and Shuttered Lives proves that you can leave the war zone behind, but you can't escape your need to document truth—even when that truth is murder, and seeking it might cost you everything you've built in your peaceful new home.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Maisy Marple's Scarlet Oaks and Shuttered Lives