Murder in Devil’s Cove: A traditional mystery with cozy elements (A Book Magic Mystery 1)

Pippin Hawthorne and her twin brother, Grey, have just returned to Devil’s Cove, an island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, after an absence of twenty years. Their intention is to restore the old family home and open it as an inn. Pippin, however, is soon drawn into her father’s unexplained disappearance. Her mother died when she was six, and her father vanished three years later, the day after the boat docked next to his sank.

Pippin suspects her father was murdered. She interacts with the locals, gleaning information as she goes, and also learning how to use her ‘gift,’ a strange ability to find meaning in books beyond the written words. This psychic talent points her in the right direction at various times in the story, but she still has work to do before she finds the truth.

The unraveling of the mystery involves Pippin’s family history (it goes all the way back to Roman times in Ireland), hidden clues, a long-lost keepsake, and a secret room. For mystery fans who enjoy amateur detectives who rely on mystical insights rather than Holmesian deductions, Murder in Devil’s Cove will provide an entertaining read.