A FATAL BOOKING

Thieves, spies, and book lovers mix with startling results at a literary-themed bed-and-breakfast.

Charlotte Reed has come to love Chapters, the North Carolina B&B she inherited from her great-aunt Isabella, who was a thrower of star-studded parties and retired spy. After a cancellation, she considers herself lucky to land a book-club group hosted by her old teaching friend Lora Kane, who’s planning the events herself. But it doesn’t take long for Charlotte to notice discord among the guests. Jewelry store owner Stacy Wilkin, who’s not staying at Chapters because she lives in nearby New Bern, has managed to antagonize several members of the group and even a local charter boat captain. Oddly, Arnold Dean, one of the guests, attended some of Isabella’s parties in his youth and was also a college friend of Charlotte’s next-door neighbor Ellen Montgomery, Isabella’s handler and trustee of her estate. Tensions escalate at the Mad Hatter–themed tea party, and soon afterward Charlotte finds Stacy dead in the garden—from cyanide poisoning, Ellen assures her. Charlotte, who’s had some unfortunate brushes with sudden death, is more than ready to assist the police. When her romantic interest, Gavin Howard, a spy who’s interested in seeking safer employment, arrives in town, they find that past doings may offer a clue to present danger.

Plenty of suspects, local color, and burgeoning romance add up to a charming cozy.