Lily Dale Mystery

In this warm and witty series debut from New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub, a widowed young mom plans a fresh start in Chicago-but instead finds her way to a quirky lakeside village that just happens to be populated by mediums. When reluctant road trippers Bella Jordan and her son Max detour to Lily Dale, New York, they're planning to deliver a lost cat to its home and then move on, searching for one of their own. But the footloose feline's owner Leona Gatto has unexpectedly passed away, leaving behind a pregnant pet without a mistress, a busy inn without a keeper-and a lovable circle of neighbors who chat with dead people. After agreeing to help out temporarily, sensible Bella doesn't need psychic gifts to figure out that a houseful of tourists and a litter of kittens lie in her immediate future-or that Leona was murdered. It's up to her to solve the case so that she and Max can leave town, but their new home-like Leona's killer-might just lurk where she least expects it.

After agreeing to stay in Lily Dale through the winter as caretakers of the Valley View Guesthouse and its feline residents, widowed mom Bella Jordan and her son Max are looking forward to the peaceful off-season after a hectic summer. That is until the medium next door, Odelia Lauder, recruits Bella to host a destination wedding for the world's most petulant bride, Johneen Maynard, a friend of Odelia's granddaughter. Things take an even more stressful turn as the wedding day looms amidst an October blizzard, when suddenly the Spirits start giving Odelia a major heads up that the bride might be fated for death. And if there's any truth to her premonitions, the wedding is off-and that's the least of their problems. It's a race to figure out who would want to kill Johneen before her attacker has a chance to strike in Something Buried, Something Blue.

Just as a murderer dumps his corpse into the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella Jordan happens to be at her window, not quite realizing what she's seeing. Unbeknownst to her, the killer spots her silhouette and prowls straight to her door. That is, until he's interrupted by a black cat. A superstitious gambler, he takes off, but Bella's seen too much, and he vows to return. Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid looking for the black cat and stumbling across the killer, begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the season's first snowstorm. Sure enough, when it strikes, he vanishes, never arriving home from the bus stop. While her son, Max, believes Jiffy has been kidnapped, Bella is convinced he's just wandered off as he typically does...until a body shows up in the lake. Now everyone is pulling out all the stops to find the missing child, identify the victim, and collar the killer. And fast, because he's coming for Bella next in Dead of Winter.

Young widow Bella Jordan investigates a mystery with a literary twist in this charming, magical small-town cozy mystery from New York Times bestseller, Wendy Corsi Staub. It's been nine months since widowed mom Bella Jordan and her young son Max moved to Lily Dale, the quirky, close-knit New York community populated by people who can speak to the dead... if one believes in that kind of thing. Now she counts Valley View, the guesthouse she runs, as home and her psychic medium neighbors as friends. Even haughty, British Pandora, who used to own Valley View before her difficult divorce. So when, Pandora sweeps in, requesting an urgent tete-a-tete, Bella expects it to be another complaint about book club. It isn't. Pandora airily reveals her elderly Auntie Eudora is taking a last-minute cruise from London to New York with her gentleman friend Nigel, and minutes later Bella is bemused to find she's agreed to host them at Valley View free of charge. Bella has enough on her plate: her son Max, their two kitties, a budding relationship with local vet Drew... not to mention this month's book club pick to read. But when, she begins to have suspicions about one of her new guests, she's determined to uncover the truth for Pandora's sake, even if it kills her first.

New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is back, with a new heart-warming cozy mystery set in the magical village of Lily Dale In the quirky, picturesque lakeside community of Lily Dale, where the residents can talk to the dead, young widow Bella Jordan is the lone skeptic among believers. She doesn't believe in ghosts . . . but after a year in the village, she would admit that her new friends do sometimes seem to know impossible things. Still, when a Black stranger dressed in old-fashioned clothing arrives unexpectedly at Bella's guesthouse at midnight on Juneteenth, only to vanish the next day as if he'd never existed, Bella's sure there has to be a logical explanation. One that has nothing to do with the strange warning Odelia, the medium next door, delivers from the Spirits: Beware of . . . Barry?! Bella doesn't know a Barry, and she has enough people in her life already, what with her young son Max and their two kitties, handsome vet Drew, a plethora of kind but nosy neighbors and a full house of summer guests. But as the mystery of the missing stranger deepens, she starts to wonder: did the Spirits really mean Barry? Or did they mean bury . . . If you're a fan of gentle mysteries filled with quirky but endearing characters, and haven't met Bella and her friends yet, you're in for a real treat! The Stranger Vanishes is the fifth Lily Dale cozy, and it's safe to jump right in.