Murder in the First Edition: A British Bookshop Cozy Mystery

A first edition. A hidden receipt. A village that has spent thirty years editing the truth.Retired London editor Maurice Bellamy came to Wychmere St. Anne for a quieter life among old books, damp lanes, and the comforting disorder of his newly opened village bookshop, The Marginal Note.Then a first edition of The Bell at Wintermere arrives from a dead woman's cottage, stuffed with old receipts, copied land records, and a letter pointing to "the bell, the bridge, and the Hartwell hand."When Alistair Quill, the novel's celebrated author, returns to the village and dies after a literary reception, Wychmere is quick to call it natural. Maurice is less convinced. Too many people want the past left unread. Too many papers have been moved, hidden, or quietly misfiled. And too many polite villagers seem determined to protect a story that no longer holds together.With the cautious help of Constable Harriet Vale, and against the resistance of a village skilled in silence, Maurice follows the trail through first editions, missing dedications, old bridge paths, archive notes, and a bitter cordial served with impeccable manners.Because somewhere inside Alistair's novel is the truth about a woman erased from village memory-and someone is willing to kill to keep her there.Murder in the First Edition is a refined British bookshop cozy mystery for readers who enjoy amateur sleuths, village secrets, old books, dry wit, and clues hidden in plain sight.Perfect for fans of: - British village mysteries - Bookshop and library cozy mysteries - Traditional amateur-sleuth mysteries - Slow-burn clues, old secrets, and elegant twists