After months of planning, sisters Abigail and Amanda Clark have finally purchased a historic resort property in the Finger Lakes. Abigail has years of experience managing hotels and restaurants, so she's sure she's ready for this new challenge. She isn't even bothered when her sister takes her dream job and decides not to move to Nightshade right away.

When a guest turns up dead in one of the rooms, though, Abigail finds herself caught up in the middle of a murder investigation. That definitely wasn't in her plans.

The dead man had a lot of enemies in the small town of Nightshade, New York, and it isn't long before Abigail has met several of them. Her nosy neighbor is eager to poke her nose into the police investigation, but all Abigail wants to do is find some guests for Sunset Lodge.

Can Abigail fix up the historic hotel on a shoestring budget? Will she be able to find guests who don't mind that a man was murdered in the hotel's annex? Or will Abigail's neighbor say the wrong thing to the wrong person and get someone else murdered before the police find the killer?

When Barry Cuda arrives at Sunset Lodge to talk to Abigail about running a boat rental business for her, she's eager to take a look at exactly what watercraft is left in the boathouse that's been locked up for over ten years.

Neither she nor Barry is expecting to find a skeleton inside one of the boats. When Barry thinks he recognize something that's been left with the body, things dont seem to add up.

It doesn't take the police long to identify the remains, and they're fairly certain the dead woman was murdered. Abigail can only hope that another murder investigation won't interfere with the special Halloween weekend she has planned for her first group of guests. Meanwhile, when Barry offers to supply a group of actors to tell ghost stories on Halloween, Abigail is quick to agree.

But the Nightshade Players all knew the woman who was murdered and Abigail's neighbor, Jessica, is convinced that one of them killed her. Can Abigail get through Halloween night without Jessica sticking her nose right into the middle of another murder investigation?

Abigail is delighted when her sister, Mandy, the co-owner of Sunset Lodge, arrives to spend a week with her. Both sisters are excited to finally have an opportunity to really talk about their plans for renovating, remodeling, and redecorating just about every inch of the main lodge building, the annex, and the cottages in the woods around the lodge. With a laser measure in one hand and a notebook in the other, Mandy wants to take notes on each of the cottages so that she can start sketching out her plans for their improvements.

The dead body in Cottage Four is an unexpected and unwelcome discovery. Abigail, who's already been through two murder investigations, wants to leave the detective work to the police, but Mandy is eager to start asking questions and talking to everyone in the small town of Nightshade.

As Mandy drags her sister around town, doing everything she can to throw them into the paths of various suspects, Abigail knows that their neighbor, Jessica, is busy doing some snooping as well. All Abigail wants to do is get the lodge ready for a special Thanksgiving weekend, but instead she has to worry that a killer might target her neighbor, or even her sister, next.

It's time for the annual Nightshade Winter Festival, and Abigail Clark is happy to volunteer her time to help out at the week-long charity fundraising event. She's only been at the fairgrounds for a short while before she stumbles across a dead body submerged in the carnival dunk tank.

The town's high school principal, Sid Stowe, always spent the week at the festival, helping out as needed and supporting the many school clubs and sports teams that take advantage of the festival's opportunity to raise money. It isn't long before Abigail begins to hear rumors and stories about the man, though.

It appears that Sid wasn't quite as wonderful as most people in Nightshade seemed to think. Not only was the man cheating on his wife, but it looks as if he was stealing money from the school district as well. Those two details seem to provide half of Nightshade with possible motives for Sid's murder. Abigail is committed to spending several days helping out at the festival. Her challenge is to find a way to do that without getting dragged into the murder investigation.

Abigail Clark and her boyfriend, Mark Cooper, are hoping for a romantic dinner together at one of Nightshade's fanciest restaurants. What they get is front row seats for huge drama at the table next to theirs. Spencer Manning's retirement celebration quickly turns into an enormous family argument, and Mark and Abigail get to hear every word.

Someone else in the restaurant records every awful moment and puts it up online, giving the entire world a chance to watch the fight. The footage takes on new significance, though, when Mark and Abigail find Spencer dead in the elevator just outside the restaurant.

Abigail doesn't want any part in the subsequent murder investigation, but she finds herself dragged into it as first one and then another of the suspects decides to move into Sunset Lodge to hide away from a town full of people who've all seen the video. When it seems as if everyone who knew Spencer is better off with him dead, finding the killer is going to be difficult.

It's the weekend before Valentine's Day and the lodge is full of happy couples ready to celebrate over two very special days. The guests include not just Abigail's boyfriend, but also Mandy and her boyfriend. Everyone is having a wonderful time until they all go on a hayride at the local park.

When Mark first spots something out of place in one of the fountains, Abigail tries to tell herself that it's nothing important. But when they stop the hayride to investigate, they find a dead man.

As usual, Abigail doesn't want to get involved, but that doesn't stop most of the dead man's family and friends from seeking her out. In a small town where everyone seems to know everyone and everything, the dead man's mother has been keeping a huge secret for thirty years. Now Abigail can't help but wonder if that secret is the key to finding the killer.

[Released on 8th May 2024 and available for pre-order now.]