A Christmas Past Due: Briar Harbor Book Club Mystery — Seven

A beloved Christmas tradition becomes evidence when a blackmailer is found dead on the library steps. >Read to the edge of the frame.Turn the first page. Keep one finger in the margin. Briar Harbor is ready. For forty years, a secret friend has left wrapped books on the doorsteps of neighbors who need them most. This Christmas, a man threatens to sell the name-and dies beside the final gift. Pen Marsh is an editor-turned-librarian who reads people the way she reads manuscripts: for the false line, the missing word, and the silence that does not belong. Marlowe, the one-eared library cat, usually reaches the clue first. This is a warm, atmospheric, fair-play cozy mystery with every essential clue on the page, no graphic violence, and a reader challenge before the reveal. Each volume stands on its own while contributing one word to the fifteen-book Keeper's Sentence. Perfect for readers who want: a coastal Maine village, library and book-club clues, a clever woman sleuth, a memorable cat, gentle humor, found family, and a puzzle solved by attention rather than luck. Bring the physical clues to your next book-club night-and see whether you can out-read the librarian.