As Susan Breen’s compelling cozy mystery series continues, Maggie Dove’s budding detective agency has given her a new lease on life. Only one thing stands in the way of success: her clients—or lack of them. After catching the killer who shook her small Hudson River town, former Sunday School teacher Maggie Dove stumbled onto an exciting new career and found a way to take her mind off her own tragic past. Now, despite her best efforts to promote the agency, Maggie can’t seem to land any new cases—until Racine Stern, one of the village’s wealthiest residents, offers her a thousand dollars to convince her “evil” sister, Domino, to stay out of town. While Maggie’s business partner thinks she’s crazy for turning down a potential client, she doesn’t want her agency to get a reputation for accommodating bizarre requests. However, Maggie is soon caught up in the family drama anyway. Racine may fear for her life—and her inheritance—but it’s Domino who takes the fall when she plunges to her death from a tower at Stern Manor. Was it an accident or something more sinister? Maggie’s investigation will test her faith—and her ability to survive. Praise for Maggie Dove's Detective Agency “What a joy! Cozy readers will instantly fall in love with the charmingly endearing Maggie Dove. A wonderfully solid and compelling mystery wrapped in an irresistible package. Susan Breen is a unique treasure—and Maggie is, too.”—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Say No More “Maggie Dove’s Detective Agency is a delightful mix of mystery, heart-felt drama, and crazy antics. Maggie uses her skills as both a Sunday school teacher and PI to solve the case—a quirky combination from author [Susan] Breen that works perfectly!”—Marty Wingate, author of The Rhyme of the Magpie “I love stories where I feel like I’m part of the action and [Maggie Dove’s Detective Agency], the second book in the [Maggie Dove] series, did just that. The narrative pulled me in and I couldn’t help but react to the various scenes that resonated with me. The author presented a well-crafted story with a wonderful, yet quirky, cast of characters and an engaging mystery that had me quickly turning the pages as I had to know how this would all play out. This was a good read and I look forward to the next book in this pleasantly appealing series.”—Dru’s Book Musings

Susan Breen introduces a charming new series heroine in this poignant and absorbing cozy mystery with a bite. Maggie Dove thinks everyone in her small Westchester County community knows everyone else’s secrets. Then murder comes to town. When Sunday School teacher Maggie Dove finds her hateful next-door neighbor Marcus Bender lying dead under her beloved oak tree—the one he demanded she cut down—she figures the man dropped dead of a mean heart. But Marcus was murdered, and the prime suspect is a young man Maggie loves like a son. Peter Nelson was the worst of Maggie’s Sunday School students; he was also her late daughter’s fiancé, and he’s been a devoted friend to Maggie in the years since her daughter’s death. Maggie can’t lose Peter, too. So she sets out to find the real murderer. To do that, she must move past the grief that has immobilized her all these years. She must probe the hidden corners of her little village on the Hudson River. And, when another death strikes even closer to home, Maggie must find the courage to defend the people and the town she loves—even if it kills her.

It is 1860. Maggie, a widow with two teenage daughters, runs a rooming house smack dab on the town square. This fact alone makes her a social outcast boarding houses are not exactly respectable. And her collection of eclectic boarders a failed aging writer, an undertaker's apprentice, a struggling young lawyer, and an old Irishman only brings her snubs and snide comments, as does her friendship with Emily and Nate, an African-American couple with whom she shares her home and chores. So Maggie is stunned when she is asked to provide a room for Jeremiah Madison, the new Methodist minister. She hopes that he will revive the little church that she attends, as well as provide her boarding house with a badly-needed aura of respectability. Jeremiah is gifted and charismatic. But he has a secret, one that will change Maggie, her friends, and her town forever.

With a name that conjures up windswept romance novels, one would expect Arabella Hicks' life to be as enchanted as that of a happily-after-heroine. Instead, she is a middle-aged writer, teaching a fiction writing class, and taking care of her ailing mother, in this poignant yet amusing tale.