A Stollen Corpse
(2025)(The prequel to the Mistlebrook Mysteries series)
A novel by Patti Petrone Miller
Jojo Buckley came home to Millbrook Falls, Massachusetts to hide—not to become a small-town investigator.
On her first night running her grandmother's bakery, she discovers a body in the walk-in cooler. Local businessman Howard Campbell is dead. The small-town mystery deepens when the investigation reveals secrets that reach far beyond her quiet New England village.
But the real mystery isn't who killed Howard.
It's what Jojo's grandmother Eleanor discovered during forty years of investigation work across five states—and why Eleanor chose to protect some truths rather than expose them.
As Jojo investigates her grandmother's hidden archives, she uncovers systematic corruption networks, a decades-old cover-up, and a philosophy of investigation that challenges everything she believes about justice and truth. She learns that seeking the truth isn't as simple as solving a murder. That protecting people and exposing crimes aren't mutually exclusive. That coming home to the place she fled might have been her actual calling all along.
For readers who love character-driven mystery with literary depth, this is the book you've been searching for.
A sophisticated cozy mystery where investigation methodology matters. Where a woman becomes her grandmother's successor while discovering who she's meant to be. Where Eleanor's legacy—including a love story hidden for decades—shapes everything Jojo understands about truth, justice, and home.
Featuring a compelling multigenerational narrative, a diverse small-town community that feels real, and the kind of ending that satisfies while making you think about what investigation actually means.
Perfect for fans of Tana French's psychological depth, Chris Whitaker's character development, and Celeste Ng's exploration of family secrets. This is literary cozy mystery at its finest—emotionally resonant, intellectually engaging, and impossible to put down.
Three years of investigation. Forty years of secrets. One woman discovering that coming home wasn't failure. It was destiny.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Patti Petrone-Miller's A Stollen Corpse