The Lingering Dead
(2026)(The first book in the Goose Creek County Cozy Mystery series)
A novel by Philippa Wozniak
Some towns remember their dead. Goose Creek refuses to let them rest.
In the lean years of the Great Depression, Ted Steele arrives in a quiet Southern mill town hoping to untangle an inheritance and escape a life that never quite felt like his own. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a place thick with unspoken rules, lingering grief, and a past that presses close, where charm masks corruption, and history is less buried than it appears. When a young woman is found dead in his hotel room, Ted realizes Goose Creek may not intend to let him leave at all.
As suspicion tightens and the town turns watchful, Ted’s unease deepens into something darker—an understanding that some forces here are ancient, deliberate, and patient. Ghostly encounters, a vanished inheritance, and a bewitching woman bound to a crumbling mansion pull Ted into a mystery rooted in land claims, Civil War secrets, and a legacy that demands a reckoning.
Can Ted uncover the truth before the past claims him as its next offering?
Blending Southern gothic atmosphere, historical intrigue, and quiet supernatural menace, this eerie cozy mystery explores what happens when old sins linger too long, and when the dead refuse to stay silent. Perfect for readers who love haunted towns, layered secrets, and mysteries where history itself becomes the antagonist.
Buy this book today and step into a Southern mystery where the past is watching—and waiting.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
In the lean years of the Great Depression, Ted Steele arrives in a quiet Southern mill town hoping to untangle an inheritance and escape a life that never quite felt like his own. Instead, he finds himself drawn into a place thick with unspoken rules, lingering grief, and a past that presses close, where charm masks corruption, and history is less buried than it appears. When a young woman is found dead in his hotel room, Ted realizes Goose Creek may not intend to let him leave at all.
As suspicion tightens and the town turns watchful, Ted’s unease deepens into something darker—an understanding that some forces here are ancient, deliberate, and patient. Ghostly encounters, a vanished inheritance, and a bewitching woman bound to a crumbling mansion pull Ted into a mystery rooted in land claims, Civil War secrets, and a legacy that demands a reckoning.
Can Ted uncover the truth before the past claims him as its next offering?
Blending Southern gothic atmosphere, historical intrigue, and quiet supernatural menace, this eerie cozy mystery explores what happens when old sins linger too long, and when the dead refuse to stay silent. Perfect for readers who love haunted towns, layered secrets, and mysteries where history itself becomes the antagonist.
Buy this book today and step into a Southern mystery where the past is watching—and waiting.
Genre: Cozy Mystery