Mostly Murders

Many thanks to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

people have been trashing the Holbrook name for generations, and I’ve never once cared. But now that the Holbrook family chowder recipe has been dragged into it, well, that’s sacred.

Book 1 in the Downeast Maine Mystery series, introducing Halibut Cove, a small fishing village and home to the Holbrook family. Large, loving and chaotic, the Holbrook family sports three generations of strong women, from matriarch Maggie Holbrook, to Maggie’s daughter Jill, police chief of Halibut Cove, and Audrey, Jill’s young adult daughter who works at The Chowder House eatery in Halibut Cove.

When Chips Hogan, a regular customer at The Chowder House, is found dead after eating a bowl of the Holbrook family recipe chowder served to him by Audrey, Maggie and Audrey insist on investigating the case, much to the chagrin of Jill, who would prefer if her mother and daughter would stop snooping and leave her to do her job in peace.

The Chowder House Murder is a fun, cozy mystery filled with delicious food, family drama, lingering feuds spanning generations, small-town gossip and intrigue, colorful locals, shady suspects, light romance, long-hidden secrets, friendship and a riotous grandmother/granddaughter duo who sneak and snoop their way around town, charming and tricking suspects and witnesses in their quest to clear the Holbrook name and solve The Chowder House murder.

I love cozy mysteries with big, crazy families who bicker and banter and band together in tough times, and I love food-themed cozy mysteries, quaint towns with sinister secrets and pasts and larger-than-life amateur sleuths and senior citizens like Maggie Holbrook. To me, The Chowder House Murder was everything I enjoy in a cozy mystery, and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next installment in this series!

The Chowder House Murder releases today, May 26th, 2026.

Cozy mystery