A local dispute leads to suspicion of murder for a small-town California bookshop owner in this cozy mystery by the New York Times bestselling author. The small town of South Cove, California, has all kinds of attractions, from resorts and beaches to Jill Gardner’s charming bookshop café. But now Jill may have discovered yet another hidden treasure. The old stone wall on her property might be the remnant of a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a historical landmark. There’s just one problem—and his name is Craig Morgan. The obnoxious owner of South Cove's most popular tourist spot, The Castle, Craig makes it his business to contest Jill’s claim. When Craig is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend Greg has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she'll need to switch from historic preservation to self-preservation.

Finalist for the 2022 Will Rogers Medallion Award “Terrific.” –Timothy Egan, The New York Times “A riveting investigation of both American myth-making and the real history that lies beneath.” –Claudio Saunt, author of Unworthy Republic From the New York Times bestselling author of Escape From Camp 14, a “terrifically readable” (Los Angeles Times) account of one of the most persistent “alternative facts” in American history: the story of a missionary, a tribe, a massacre, and a myth that shaped the American West In 1836, two missionaries and their wives were among the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon on what would become the Oregon Trail. Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding were headed to present-day Washington state and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. Both would fail spectacularly as missionaries. But Spalding would succeed as a propagandist, inventing a story that recast his friend as a hero, and helped to fuel the massive westward migration that would eventually lead to the devastation of those they had purportedly set out to save. As Spalding told it, after uncovering a British and Catholic plot to steal the Oregon Territory from the United States, Whitman undertook a heroic solo ride across the country to alert the President. In fact, he had traveled to Washington to save his own job. Soon after his return, Whitman, his wife, and eleven others were massacred by a group of Cayuse. Though they had ample reason - Whitman supported the explosion of white migration that was encroaching on their territory, and seemed to blame for a deadly measles outbreak - the Cayuse were portrayed as murderous savages. Five were executed. This fascinating, impeccably researched narrative traces the ripple effect of these events across the century that followed. While the Cayuse eventually lost the vast majority of their territory, thanks to the efforts of Spalding and others who turned the story to their own purposes, Whitman was celebrated well into the middle of the 20th century for having "saved Oregon." Accounts of his heroic exploits appeared in congressional documents, The New York Times, and Life magazine, and became a central founding myth of the Pacific Northwest. Exposing the hucksterism and self-interest at the root of American myth-making, Murder at the Mission reminds us of the cost of American expansion, and of the problems that can arise when history is told only by the victors.

Provides a solid review of the subject, with an accessible, incisive presentation, including photos and features unique to this edition.

Local mystery adds a novel twist to the quite, remote Cherry farming community of Old Mission. In 1895, Julia Curtis was found strangled, pregnant, and buried in a shallow grave near her home on Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City. A search for the murderer led investigators to a likely suspect, Woodruff Parmelee. From these bare bones, Stephen Lewis recreates the personalities, relationships and motives for this century old murder that rocked northern Michigan way back when. Tension builds from the first chapter as Lewis weaves the Curtis family ghosts and the Parmelee family skeletons, cleverly creating characters, motives, and relationships that keep the pages turning. There are clues: an empty bottle of laudanum, the footprints, the note'all leading to the climax courtroom drama and a suspect's alibi.