The Well-Shadowed Path
(2026)(The eighth book in the Wishville Mystery series)
A novel by Kari Lee Townsend
A whimsical paranormal cozy mystery featuring a century-old well Guardian, a proposal she’s terrified to answer, and a crisis that strikes at the townsfolk themselves while a force older than the treaty moves through Wishville.
For a hundred years, Lyra Wells has been Guardian of Wishville’s wishing well—sealing fractures, keeping treaties, and holding two worlds back from destroying each other, one crisis at a time. She knows how to manage the extraordinary. What she doesn’t know how to manage is the morning Holden Thorn sets a ring box on the kitchen counter. Not because she doesn’t love him—because she’s terrified of what loving him completely will cost her, and what she’ll have to give up to stay.
She doesn’t get long to sit with that fear. The Final Frost Vigil is barely over when Siobhan Gallagher is found at the fountain—breathing, eyes open, and entirely gone from behind them. People across Wishville are falling ill, no one can say why, and beneath it all a force older than the treaty is moving through town, hunting the one person who can make it permanent.
As Chief Holden Thorn works a crisis that keeps multiplying, the rest of the Fearless Four race to name an enemy that wears a new face every time they close in—while the Wellies turn the Silver Birch Stitchery into a command center, the pigeons take their surveillance duties very seriously, and both kittens hold opinions about the investigation board that are, inexplicably, correct. But the killer isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Everyone Wishville trusts most has been holding something back—and not all of them are still on the right side.
Perfect for readers who love:
– Whimsical paranormal cozy mysteries
– A century-old Guardian and a proposal she fears to answer
– A hidden magical town and a looming two-world war
– Found family, clever pets, and secrets among friends
Genre: Mystery
For a hundred years, Lyra Wells has been Guardian of Wishville’s wishing well—sealing fractures, keeping treaties, and holding two worlds back from destroying each other, one crisis at a time. She knows how to manage the extraordinary. What she doesn’t know how to manage is the morning Holden Thorn sets a ring box on the kitchen counter. Not because she doesn’t love him—because she’s terrified of what loving him completely will cost her, and what she’ll have to give up to stay.
She doesn’t get long to sit with that fear. The Final Frost Vigil is barely over when Siobhan Gallagher is found at the fountain—breathing, eyes open, and entirely gone from behind them. People across Wishville are falling ill, no one can say why, and beneath it all a force older than the treaty is moving through town, hunting the one person who can make it permanent.
As Chief Holden Thorn works a crisis that keeps multiplying, the rest of the Fearless Four race to name an enemy that wears a new face every time they close in—while the Wellies turn the Silver Birch Stitchery into a command center, the pigeons take their surveillance duties very seriously, and both kittens hold opinions about the investigation board that are, inexplicably, correct. But the killer isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Everyone Wishville trusts most has been holding something back—and not all of them are still on the right side.
Perfect for readers who love:
– Whimsical paranormal cozy mysteries
– A century-old Guardian and a proposal she fears to answer
– A hidden magical town and a looming two-world war
– Found family, clever pets, and secrets among friends
Genre: Mystery