The Bell at Frost Hollow: A British cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth, winter bell clues, and a donor-wall secret (The Knot Garden Mysteries Series Book 3)
By Liora Dawn
The Bell at Frost Hollow
Midwinter in Wrenfield brings lanterns, iced paths, and one midnight bell that should have meant celebration. By dawn, Reverend Alton Pike is found posed in Frost Hollow with a bell-pull at his wrist. It looks ceremonial. Iris Lark, botanical illustrator and park restorer, sees staging.
Frost preserves what most nights erase. A perfect melt ring near an east-gate padlock suggests hot water. The bell’s chalked clapper would mark anyone who rang it after midnight. A tassel shows twin nicks, the sort a small clamp would leave. Pepper the African grey repeats a precise line, pull once, walk twice, which sounds like nonsense until Iris maps a hidden gate route through the yews.
Suspects have reasons. A status-minded family protects a donor plaque on the naming wall. A detectorist trespasses for coin finds and sits on a brass token. Cassian Vale’s fixer prides himself on tidy events. DI Rowan Hale tracks timelines while Iris reads frost, rope, and notes the Reverend kept about a misassigned plaque. The answer rests in access, tools, and a short window when the garden fell quiet.
Expect a fair-play British cozy with real clues, clean language, gentle warmth at the Willow & Trowel, and a reveal you can solve from the page. A final note points Iris toward a boarded cellar that may change everything.
The Bell at Frost Hollow
Midwinter in Wrenfield brings lanterns, iced paths, and one midnight bell that should have meant celebration. By dawn, Reverend Alton Pike is found posed in Frost Hollow with a bell-pull at his wrist. It looks ceremonial. Iris Lark, botanical illustrator and park restorer, sees staging.
Frost preserves what most nights erase. A perfect melt ring near an east-gate padlock suggests hot water. The bell’s chalked clapper would mark anyone who rang it after midnight. A tassel shows twin nicks, the sort a small clamp would leave. Pepper the African grey repeats a precise line, pull once, walk twice, which sounds like nonsense until Iris maps a hidden gate route through the yews.
Suspects have reasons. A status-minded family protects a donor plaque on the naming wall. A detectorist trespasses for coin finds and sits on a brass token. Cassian Vale’s fixer prides himself on tidy events. DI Rowan Hale tracks timelines while Iris reads frost, rope, and notes the Reverend kept about a misassigned plaque. The answer rests in access, tools, and a short window when the garden fell quiet.
Expect a fair-play British cozy with real clues, clean language, gentle warmth at the Willow & Trowel, and a reveal you can solve from the page. A final note points Iris toward a boarded cellar that may change everything.