Books, beach roses... and bodies. Bookseller and recent divorcée Max Sayers has risked her life savings to start a fresh chapter with the purchase of Seaside Cottage Books in cozy Snug Harbor, Maine. But she's barely opened the shop's doors when her new storybook life takes a dark turn. The morning after the grand opening—featuring a famous author who shows up at the store on the arm of Max's ex-husband—Max's rescue dog Winston finds a dead man on the beach behind the shop. The murder weapon? One of Max's antique bookends. Will Max solve the case before the murderer strikes again? Or will her bright new beginning turn into a killer of an ending?

When fledgling bookseller Max Sayers agrees to host Snug Harbor, Maine's new mystery writers' group, she envisions filling Seaside Cottage Books with literary conversation, warm, fresh-baked cookies, and a community to support her assistant Bethany's mystery writing dream. But the group has barely begun its inaugural meeting when local author Reginald Blakely accuses young Bethany of plagiarizing his novel. The next morning, Reginald turns up a half mile from the bookstore, a letter opener plunged into her bony chest and her face covered in black ink. When police learn that an almost identical murder happened just last week—in Bethany's unfinished murder mystery—Max's beloved assistant rockets to the top of the suspect list. As Max struggles to clear Bethany's name, she discovers that some old roots in Snug Harbor run deeper—and are more twisted—than she ever dreamed possible. She soon uncovers a network of deceit that sprouted from a bad seed planted in the bookstore itself, almost a century earlier. But someone doesn't like her digging. A rash of threatening anonymous phone calls—and a heavy inkwell hurled through the shop window, barely missing Max's head—send a clear and deadly message. Back off... or else. Can Max clear her assistant's name in time? Or will she—and Seaside Cottage Books—be the killer's next victim?

Books, beach roses... and bodies. Bookstore owner Max Sayers of Seaside Cottage Books is starting to settle into Snug Harbor, Maine when a local playboy plunges to his death... and Max's best friend Denise is on the hotseat for murder. Denise is an obvious prime suspect—the dead man just nabbed the coffee house she'd been planning to buy for years right out from under her—and Max seems to be the only one in Snug Harbor who believes her friend isn't Maine's answer to Lizzie Borden. To top things off, business at Seaside Cottage Books is not exactly putting the store at the top of the Snug Harbor bestseller list. Add in a challenging ex-husband, a mother who's fangirl crushing on her ex's new girlfriend, and a daughter who's boycotting the bookseller's own budding romance, and Max finds herself wishing she were buried in a book instead of a real-life murder mystery. Then Max stumbles across a second body... and realizes if she doesn't think fast, this new chapter of her life may come to a very sudden end.