Poison at the Yuletide Wassail: A Small-Town Holiday Market Cozy Mystery

About Poison at the Yuletide Wassail: A Small-Town Holiday Market Cozy Mystery

Tessa Hart is counting on Sweetfern’s Yuletide Wassail to save Hart’s Run through the winter. Then the town treasurer drops dead after the ceremonial toast. Bernard Tully was more than the man who ran the town’s holiday money.

He controlled market stall assignments, directed the church choir, and knew exactly which local secrets were worth cash. When he dies at the height of Sweetfern’s prettiest winter tradition, panic spreads fast, the holiday market starts to unravel, and Hart’s Run lands in the firing line yet again. But the murder is only half the problem.

Moments after Bernard collapses, a stack of historic wassail song sheets vanishes from the pressing room, and Tessa begins to suspect the old carols were hiding something far more dangerous than festive nostalgia. As she digs deeper, she finds a trail of coded verses, barrel numbers, donor payouts, and off-book money routes tied to the same buried network Rose Hart died trying to expose. Now Tessa is facing a possible permit disaster, a winter season that could collapse before it starts, and a suspect pool packed with people who cannot afford the truth: angry market vendors, ambitious council members, desperate donors, and one polished insider who knows exactly how to turn charity into camouflage.

To catch the killer, Tessa will have to prove that in Sweetfern, even the holiday songs keep secrets. And this time, those secrets may be worth more than her home.