Lessons and Lies

Ellie Harper Mysteries, Book 1

Ellie Harper spent thirty years teaching literature. Now she runs a bookshop in Concord, Massachusetts, shares her apartment with a imperious black cat named Agatha, and hosts a mystery book club with three friends who know everyone's business and aren't afraid to use it.

Life is finally simple. Until the evening Professor Arthur Pearson collapses during their weekly chess game, and the police call it natural causes.

Ellie knows better.

Armed with a lifetime of reading Agatha Christie, sharp instincts honed in university lecture halls, and friends with connections all over town, Ellie begins asking the questions no one wants answered. At Bellingham University, old rivalries and buried secrets surface — and someone is watching to make sure they stay buried.

Part Murder, She Wrote, part The Thursday Murder Club, Lessons and Lies is for everyone who believes the smartest person in the room might just be the retired professor with a cat on her lap and a very good memory.

©2025 Paul McGowan (P)2025 Paul McGowan