Murder at Brinkles Resort
(2026)Prequel
(A book in the Montana Cozy Art Mysteries series)
A Story by Mollie Mathews
★★★★★ "Excellent Mystery. Great characters and twists that kept my attention from start to finish. Well written. Highly recommended."
Everyone in town had a reason to want him dead...
In the quiet mountain town of Willow Hollow, autumn is supposed to be peaceful.
Until a body is found.
When arrogant resort owner Paul Brinkley is discovered dead in Cabin Seven at Brinkles Resort, the snow-covered stillness of Montana fractures overnight. Poisoned whiskey. A shattered ceramic cat. Two glasses. One fatal mistake.
And nearly everyone in town had a reason to want him dead.
Everyone in town had a reason to want him dead...
In the quiet mountain town of Willow Hollow, autumn is supposed to be peaceful.
Until a body is found.
When arrogant resort owner Paul Brinkley is discovered dead in Cabin Seven at Brinkles Resort, the snow-covered stillness of Montana fractures overnight. Poisoned whiskey. A shattered ceramic cat. Two glasses. One fatal mistake.
And nearly everyone in town had a reason to want him dead.
- His long-suffering wife is preparing to leave him.
His troubled son is trapped by addiction and secret debt.
An unpaid artist wants justice.
Retired investors have been cheated out of their savings.
A chef has been left ruined after the resort restaurant suddenly closes.
And the homeless woman everyone overlooked has lost far more than money.
Then there’s the glamorous English art recovery curator with ties to the shadowy art underworld—who arrived in Willow Hollow just before Paul died.
As Sheriff Tom Archer struggles to untangle motive from malice, Cassandra Fairweather finds herself drawn into a web far darker than small-town revenge. Hidden ledgers. Offshore accounts. Stolen treasures. Development funds siphoned from Willow Hollow itself. And secrets buried beneath decades of lies.
But when a second body is discovered—and another attack follows—it becomes terrifyingly clear this was never a simple crime of passion.
Someone is silencing witnesses.
Someone is manipulating evidence.
And someone knows the truth about a decades-old ski slope ‘accident’ that destroyed more than one life.
Now Cassandra must uncover what really happened that night… and twenty years ago… before the storm buries the final secret forever.
Perfect for fans of:
✔ Agatha Christie-style closed-circle mysteries
✔ Atmospheric small-town suspense
✔ Art-world intrigue and hidden secrets
✔ Mysteries filled with twists and betrayal
If you loved:
• Murder in the Frame
• Murder in the Palette
• Murder on the Lake
• The art-infused intrigue of the Cassandra Fairweather Mysteries
…then you won’t want to miss this gripping prequel novella that reveals the secrets lurking beneath Willow Hollow''s picture-perfect surface.
Because in Willow Hollow, the most dangerous thing isn’t the snowstorm.
It’s what rises when the past refuses to stay buried.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Mollie Mathews's Murder at Brinkles Resort