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Hello suspicious reader,
Winifred Baxter begins the morning the way she always does: by counting the things Copernicus has moved overnight.
That is what life has become at Baxter's Botanicals and Curiosities. The tinctures have their places. The dried herbs have their drawers. The teas, salves, lavender sachets, and profitable little tourist things all sit where Winifred left them.
A crow, of course, does not.
And on the second Tuesday in April, Copernicus has moved something that should have stayed put: the three of clubs.
A Murder of Crows Arrives June 15
A Murder of Crows is Book Two of The Winifred Baxter Mysteries, and it brings us back to Pelican Cove in that thin, watchful stretch before tourist season begins.
The town is preparing for Harbor Days. Banners are going up. The historical society is dressing an exhibit. The old Wexford house on the bluff is being cleared for a heritage auction.
Then a stranger walks into Winifred's shop and asks questions that are too careful to be casual.
Soon after, Hettie Marsh is found dead at the foot of the historical society's back stairs, and the town reaches for the simplest explanation: bad stairs, bad light, bad joints.
Winifred knows the value of a dull explanation. She prefers it, actually. She tests it. She argues for it. She makes every ordinary answer survive a serious cross-examination before she allows herself the interesting one.
But there is a button that does not fit the story.
There are crows on the roof.
And Copernicus has already decided there is something here worth presenting.
What This Mystery Is Really About
This is a Pelican Cove story, which means the case is not only about what happened. It is about what the town has filed away, agreed not to mention, or mislabeled until the truth could no longer be found without disturbing the dust.
A Murder of Crows has:
Winifred Baxter, who notices too much and trusts that noticing even when it irritates everyone around her.
Copernicus, who may or may not understand evidence better than several humans.
The Wexford house, closed so long the town stopped seeing it.
A historical society exhibit whose order meant something to the one person who can no longer explain it.
Harbor Days bunting, coastal fog, old water, and a death the town would very much like to keep calling an accident.
If you liked the warmth and dread of Caws and Effect, this one digs a little deeper into what a small town remembers, what it edits, and what happens when one too-thorough historian refuses to leave the past alone.
Reader Question
Do you trust Copernicus?
Not "do you like him." That is a different question. I mean: if a crow placed a card on your counter twice, would you treat it as evidence?
Reply and tell me where you stand. I am collecting opinions, and Winifred would insist the sample size matters.
A Murder of Crows arrives June 15.
Stay suspicious of everyone. It is just good practice.
Jessie Clark
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