The Carpenter's Granddaughter

A good craftsman hides his mistakes. This one hid a lot more.

It's a hot Charlottesville summer, and book restorer Em Whitmore has finally settled into a life that feels well-bound. Dog-Eared Books is thriving, Boo is keeping her usual watch, and something real, if still unnamed, is taking shape with steady, map-loving Charles McMann.

Then eighteen-year-old Lila Mercer walks in with a stack of threatening letters and her late grandfather's journal. Harold Mercer built furniture for half the county's oldest families and, according to Lila, stole a painting worth over a million dollars from one of them. Weeks after Lila starts asking questions, her aunt Kitty turns up dead.

Everyone assumed it was a heart attack. The details say otherwise.

Buried in Harold's journal is a decades-old debt, a family built on silence, and secrets tucked so deep into the woodwork that even blood couldn't find them. With Detective Reyes working the case, Boo squaring off against Lila's fearless chihuahua, and Charles's eye for old property records turning out to be more useful than anyone expected, Em has to pry the truth loose before whoever silenced Kitty comes for the last Mercer still asking questions.

Perfect for fans of: ✓ Bookshop mysteries, ✓ A cat (and now a chihuahua) with attitude, ✓ Family secrets with high stakes