A Body in the Signal Tower: A Witchy Cozy Mystery of Storm Warnings, Missing Logs, and Harbor Betrayal
About A Body in the Signal Tower: A Witchy Cozy Mystery of Storm Warnings, Missing Logs, and Harbor Betrayal
Storm season has arrived in Blackwater Harbor. When a violent autumn gale slams into the coast, half the town takes shelter along the waterfront while waves crash against the seawall and the old signal tower is reopened as an emergency refuge. But when the storm finally breaks, a body is discovered at the top of the tower.
The victim is a visiting historian. He lies beside a stack of copied harbor records, a smashed speaking tube, and a set of documents that someone clearly did not want him studying. The official explanation is simple enough.
A tragic accident during the storm. Mara Vane knows the story does not hold. Since reopening The Gull’s Lantern, Mara has learned that Blackwater Harbor protects its reputation fiercely, especially when the truth threatens long-standing families and carefully managed history.
The dead historian had been researching rescue records from past storms, focusing on the women who organized unofficial lifeboat crews when the harbor authorities failed. Records that never appeared in the official harbor books. As Mara digs deeper, she discovers her late aunt was part of a quiet network of harbor women who kept their own ledgers and testimony after men in power repeatedly erased their work.
The historian had uncovered something far more dangerous than forgotten heroism. Several present-day property titles appear to be built on forged emergency seizure orders issued during historic storms. Someone had used disaster as an excuse to take land.
With Rook’s sharp eyes helping her notice details others miss, Mara follows a crucial clue when the eagle fixates on cloth fibers caught inside the tower’s signal clapper. The thread leads Mara to a respected figure no one suspects. The town’s beloved museum chairwoman, a woman who has spent years polishing Blackwater’s history into a marketable story that protects her family’s legacy.
The historian was about to expose the truth. Now Mara must untangle decades of buried records, civic pride, and carefully curated lies before the harbor’s real history disappears for good. And before the people responsible decide one death is not enough.
By the time the truth surfaces, Mara uncovers a name tied to the same quiet network of money and influence she has been circling since her first investigation. A name connected to the powerful organization reshaping the harbor behind the scenes. The Mariner’s Trust.
A Body in the Signal Tower deepens the Harbor Hex Mysteries, a witchy coastal mystery series filled with storm-lashed docks, hidden records, determined sleuthing, and a harbor where the past refuses to stay buried.