A Christmas of Her Own
Paper stars, handwritten recommendations, and real evergreen: Ellie is making the bookshop her own. Between gift orders and conversations with Maya, she is learning which traditions to keep—and which to change.
BOOK TWO · THE BELLFLOWER BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES
A Carol in Red Ink
A familiar Christmas tradition. A program marked in red. A town with more than one version of the past.
The second Bellflower Bookshop Mystery · English language
Read the opening →
CHRISTMAS IN BELLFLOWER
A Familiar Tradition. An Unsettling Death.
Ellie Bell’s first Christmas as a bookshop owner should mean gift books, warm lights, and familiar faces. Then a former school librarian dies at the Old Meeting House—and the past becomes part of the investigation.
Celia Rowan had been preparing a facsimile of Bellflower’s 1987 Candlelight Carol program. The surviving copy is crowded with red marks, and the story the town remembers does not quite match the one preserved on its pages.
PEOPLE, PAGES & PRIVATE HISTORIES
A Town Full of Stories. Not All of Them Agree.
The Pages Celia Left Behind
Celia Rowan wants the town’s 1987 Carol booklet preserved faithfully. Her niece Nina wants to make it readable. What begins as a disagreement over pages draws Ellie toward a history that is less settled than it looks.
Familiar Voices, Uncertain Memories
Rehearsals bring old friends together. Questions about an earlier performance pull them apart. As Ellie listens, she must distinguish what people remember from the story they have heard for years.
FOLLOW THE RED INK
The Town Remembers One Story. The Pages Tell Another.
Arrows, corrections, and changes to the running order. To understand Celia’s death, Ellie must look beyond the neat version Bellflower has learned to repeat.
A cozy Christmas mystery with bookish clues, a Vermont small town, and a quiet spark of romance.
READ THE OPENING · CHAPTER 1
A window of her own.
Nora Bell had believed a Christmas window needed one color: red. Red ribbon. Red glass ornaments. Red velvet bows tucked into real evergreen until, every December, the Bellflower Bookshop looked as if someone had wrapped the entire storefront for delivery. Ellie stood on the sidewalk and studied what she and Maya had built instead. Through the glass, Maya lifted a length of red ribbon with both hands and raised her eyebrows. Ellie shook her head.
Maya dropped it back into the box. When Ellie came inside, the brass bell chimed above her and a blade of December air followed her through the door. The front of the shop smelled of pine, paper, and the coffee Maya had brought over from the café.
“The greenery stays,” Ellie said.
“Compromise. How mature of you.”
“It’s real evergreen. Nora would object to plastic on principle.”
“Nora had principles about everything.”
Ellie tried not to smile and failed. They had kept the evergreen, but almost nothing else resembled Nora’s old display. Warm ivory paper stars hung at uneven heights above small stacks of gift books. Between them, Ellie had tucked handwritten recommendation cards from herself, Maya, and Tom.
The opening of A Carol in Red Ink by John Deda.
A CONNECTION THAT KEEPS GROWING
Quiet Clues. Complicated Loyalties.
Ellie brings an editor’s eye to old programs and borrowed memories; Detective Jack Mercer follows the evidence. Between the questions, there is still room for coffee, dry humor, and a connection neither is ready to name.
An atmospheric cozy mystery with no graphic violence or explicit sexual content.
There Is Still a Place for You in Bellflower
Books, friendship, and a new mystery among familiar faces. Return to the Bellflower Bookshop as Ellie’s life in Vermont takes root.
New to Bellflower? Begin with Murder at the Bellflower Bookshop →