A Cold Snap on Main Street

About A Cold Snap on Main Street

Every July, Main Street in Willow Crossing melts into one long ice cream social, and the warm heart of it is Hartwell's Soda Fountain — three generations of marble counter, hand-cranked malts, and a signature flavor the whole town would line up around the block for. Junie Hartwell runs the fountain the way her family always has: she knows everyone's "usual," reads her regulars like running tabs, and keeps the peace over root-beer floats while a giant orange window-cat judges the customers. Then little folded notes start appearing at dawn on doorsteps up and down Main, each one airing a secret somebody paid to keep buried — and the town has barely stopped whispering when the prickly newcomer whose trendy shop has been stealing Hartwell's summer crowds is found dead at the foot of the old ice house stairs. Everyone reaches for the easy story: the pushy outsider was the blackmailer, and one of her victims finally snapped. Everyone except Junie, who knows that ice house has stood bone-dry for thirty years — so the puddle the dead woman supposedly slipped on had no business being there. The trouble is, suspicion is circling close to home: her stubborn father feuded with the victim in public and took a solo dawn walk with no witnesses, and Junie's own loud feelings about her rival have made her the town's very first whisper. To clear the people she loves, Junie will have to figure out who's really leaving those notes — and which of Main Street's tidy little secrets is worth killing to keep frozen