The Elf Did It

A Katie Murphy Cozy Mystery

Seaside Cove’s first Christmas Market has transformed Main Street into a twinkling winter wonderland. Strolling paths are lined with cheerful booths run by local artists, crafters, and food vendors, while the sounds of live music and the sweet scents of peppermint fudge, cinnamon-roasted nuts, and buttery shortbread drift on the breeze. The town’s children pose for photographs with Santa Claus while telling him their Christmas wishes.

But the holiday cheer comes to a crashing halt when Clara, the cantankerous woman running the market, is found dead behind the Santa’s sleigh photo station. Suspicion quickly lands on Reed, the grumpy part-time actor playing one of Santa’s elves, who’d been seen arguing with the victim that very day.

Witness accounts don’t add up, and the mystery deepens when children’s drawings depict a shadowy figure near the sleigh. They insist it was an elf. Or was it a leprechaun? The confusion only grows thanks to a vendor in an Irish getup peddling questionable “authentic” wares.

With the help of pint-sized witnesses, a few quirky holiday traditions, and Ella Winchester’s sixth sense, Katie must untangle this tinsel-covered mystery before the killer strikes again. Because in Seaside Cove, it’s beginning to look a lot like... murder.