Quiet Profits in Briar Hollow
(2026)(The second book in the Quiet Discretion Mysteries series)
A Story by Petra Shaw
In Briar Hollow, ‘peaceful’ is just another word for don’t ask questions.
Clara Whitlock runs Second Chances Antiques with one strict rule: gloves on, feelings off. Because Clara can feel what objects remember—and some memories don’t want to be touched.
When a nervous stranger brings in a battered leather ledger pulled from a dead uncle’s locked drawer, Clara expects old debts and family drama.
Instead, she finds a system.
Neat entries. Monthly amounts. Careful wording designed to survive scrutiny. And one name at the top that makes her stomach drop: Carl Benton — Primary.
Two weeks ago, the payments stopped.
Today, Carl Benton is dead in his recliner—‘peaceful,’ the town insists. But the ledger doesn’t feel peaceful. It feels like counting.
With Nimbus—her sharp-tongued, talking black cat and unwilling partner in truth—Clara follows the money trail through permits, favors, and the kind of quiet corruption that keeps a small town smiling. The problem isn’t just who was being paid.
It’s who stopped getting paid… and what they were willing to do to keep the silence intact.
And when a stranger leaves a parcel marked FOR WHITLOCK with no return address and no footsteps, Clara realizes Book Two isn’t just about hush money.
It’s about attention.
Because someone outside Briar Hollow has started keeping track of her.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Clara Whitlock runs Second Chances Antiques with one strict rule: gloves on, feelings off. Because Clara can feel what objects remember—and some memories don’t want to be touched.
When a nervous stranger brings in a battered leather ledger pulled from a dead uncle’s locked drawer, Clara expects old debts and family drama.
Instead, she finds a system.
Neat entries. Monthly amounts. Careful wording designed to survive scrutiny. And one name at the top that makes her stomach drop: Carl Benton — Primary.
Two weeks ago, the payments stopped.
Today, Carl Benton is dead in his recliner—‘peaceful,’ the town insists. But the ledger doesn’t feel peaceful. It feels like counting.
With Nimbus—her sharp-tongued, talking black cat and unwilling partner in truth—Clara follows the money trail through permits, favors, and the kind of quiet corruption that keeps a small town smiling. The problem isn’t just who was being paid.
It’s who stopped getting paid… and what they were willing to do to keep the silence intact.
And when a stranger leaves a parcel marked FOR WHITLOCK with no return address and no footsteps, Clara realizes Book Two isn’t just about hush money.
It’s about attention.
Because someone outside Briar Hollow has started keeping track of her.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Petra Shaw's Quiet Profits in Briar Hollow