Dead Bolt Sunday

A small-town cozy mystery where the church keeps its doors locked—and someone keeps the truth even closer.Spring has reached Corliss Landing, and St. Brendan's is preparing for Palm Sunday and a long-awaited restoration. For locksmith Rachel Harlow, opening the parish's old iron poor box should be a simple job. Except its missing key is only the beginning of what doesn't add up.The money is short. The supposedly neglected lock has been used. And parish bookkeeper Maribeth Oakes has been asking awkward questions for years. When she is found dead at the church on Palm Sunday, a grieving congregation is ready to accept the most comforting explanation. Rachel's hands tell her to look again.With insurance investigator Nate Brandt checking the claim and the altar guild keeping a sharp eye on everybody's business, Rachel follows the trail from an ancient strongbox to a change of locks absent from her family's Ledger. Someone has been entering where they shouldn't—and relying on good people to trust them.In a town where everyone knows who belongs at church, can Rachel discover who had access before another secret disappears behind a closed door?Dead Bolt Sunday is Book Two of The Master Key Mysteries: a clean whodunit with church gossip, clever physical clues, Tumbler's feline interference, and a quietly growing romantic spark.For readers who love:•   Church restoration and missing-money puzzles•   An observant sleuth who reads the evidence in a lock•   Altar-guild gossip and affectionate small-town humor•   Gentle romance and cozy mysteries without graphic violence