A map for murder delivered in a story-writing competition.

Willowcroft’s Quirk-Off festival lives by its motto: Celebrate the strange, the silly, and the splendidly odd.

When writer Tammy Rumbelow agrees to judge the flash fiction contest, she does not expect a story describing an all-too-real forty-year-old poisoning, where “The truth is buried three feet deep, beneath the fourth rosebush from the left.”

With her clue-sniffing cat, Lockie, Tammy enlists her found family: Olivia, the bookstore owner with a secret back room and a murder board; Mrs. T, knitting-circle queen who can summon decades of gossip with a single text; Wally, the retired sheriff; and Xander, the teenage tech whiz.

The trail leads to a vanished artist, a land feud, a secret girlfriend, and the sister.

The killer is watching.

Threatening gnomes appear on doorsteps. A suspect is murdered.

With the Paw-litical Race in full swing and The Knotty Diversion poised to detonate, the team has one shot to turn the festival finale into a trap. Strategic yarn, public scandal, and two determined animals may be the only way to bring down the killer before the team becomes the next target.

Witty, twisty, and impossible to put down.

Perfect for readers who love: small-town cozy mysteries, amateur sleuth teams, fair-play clue trails, found family, quirky festivals, hidden pasts, cold cases, and cats with excellent instincts.

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