The Well-Guarded Truth
(2026)(The seventh book in the Wishville Mystery series)
A novel by Kari Lee Townsend
A buried secret.
A dying magic.
A fall festival where the truth was never meant to surface.
Lyra Wells wants one uncomplicated autumn — woodsmoke in the meadow, lanterns along the square, and a WishFest that runs exactly the way she planned it. As Guardian of the ancient well and chair of the festival, she's learned to manage a great deal. What she isn't managing — and isn't telling anyone — is that the magic she's carried for three hundred years has started to flicker.
That hope for calm shatters when Harrison Pike, the estranged son of one of Wishville's founding families, is found dead at the base of the Historical Society stairs. He came back to town for one reason: to clear his grandfather's name. What he found in those records was something far more dangerous — a truth buried beneath sixty years of carefully maintained lies and a secret someone was willing to kill to protect.
As Chief Holden Thorn investigates a murder with too many suspects and too few answers, Lyra and the Wellies follow a trail that winds from the town's founding charter all the way to the Guardians of the Well. Calderis races to contain a threat from within Elarion, where rebel forces are invoking an ancient law that could dismantle the Triangle Treaty itself. And LuLu, growing into powers Wishville has never seen before, finds herself navigating a killer who moves through polite society like a ghost — while the Wellies declare a chili emergency and the kittens make everything significantly more complicated.
The killer isn't hiding in the shadows.
They're pouring the cider, hanging the garlands, and smiling at everyone.
And the well has known the truth all along.
Perfect for readers who love:
– Autumn festivals with cozy atmosphere and darker undercurrents
– Founding-family secrets and small-town history with bite
– Magical stakes that hit closer to home than anyone expected
– Creature companions, cozy chaos, and a heroine whose greatest strength may be what she's losing
Genre: Cozy Mystery
A dying magic.
A fall festival where the truth was never meant to surface.
Lyra Wells wants one uncomplicated autumn — woodsmoke in the meadow, lanterns along the square, and a WishFest that runs exactly the way she planned it. As Guardian of the ancient well and chair of the festival, she's learned to manage a great deal. What she isn't managing — and isn't telling anyone — is that the magic she's carried for three hundred years has started to flicker.
That hope for calm shatters when Harrison Pike, the estranged son of one of Wishville's founding families, is found dead at the base of the Historical Society stairs. He came back to town for one reason: to clear his grandfather's name. What he found in those records was something far more dangerous — a truth buried beneath sixty years of carefully maintained lies and a secret someone was willing to kill to protect.
As Chief Holden Thorn investigates a murder with too many suspects and too few answers, Lyra and the Wellies follow a trail that winds from the town's founding charter all the way to the Guardians of the Well. Calderis races to contain a threat from within Elarion, where rebel forces are invoking an ancient law that could dismantle the Triangle Treaty itself. And LuLu, growing into powers Wishville has never seen before, finds herself navigating a killer who moves through polite society like a ghost — while the Wellies declare a chili emergency and the kittens make everything significantly more complicated.
The killer isn't hiding in the shadows.
They're pouring the cider, hanging the garlands, and smiling at everyone.
And the well has known the truth all along.
Perfect for readers who love:
– Autumn festivals with cozy atmosphere and darker undercurrents
– Founding-family secrets and small-town history with bite
– Magical stakes that hit closer to home than anyone expected
– Creature companions, cozy chaos, and a heroine whose greatest strength may be what she's losing
Genre: Cozy Mystery