ANNA DE WAHL · CEDAR HARBOR COZY MYSTERIES
Welcome to
Cedar Harbor.
Come for the coffee.
Stay for the mystery.
01 · A TABLE IS WAITING
Come inside.
Follow Main Street toward the smell of fresh coffee.
There’s a café called Brewed in the Morning, where the chairs don’t quite match and someone always seems to have something to tell.
Behind the counter stands Emma Chandler. Near her feet lies an enormous golden retriever who opens one eye when you arrive. Barnaby is deciding whether you’ve brought anything worth getting up for.
“First time in Cedar Harbor?”
You nod. Emma reaches for a cup.
“Then take your time.”
Outside, the lake stretches beyond the town. Inside, the coffee is warm, a chair is waiting, and for a moment there seems no reason to hurry anywhere.
Meet Emma →
02 · MEET EMMA CHANDLER
Emma notices things.
Emma has learned that people tell you things while you’re pouring coffee. Sometimes they mean to.
A name slips into conversation. Someone changes the subject. A familiar customer becomes unusually interested in the weather.
Emma notices.
She used to be a detective in Grand Rapids. These days, she runs a café and tries to give herself—and the people around her—a little room to breathe.
There are reasons she came here. You’ll learn them when she’s ready.
For now, she sets your coffee down and glances toward the door.
“That’ll be Ollie.”
The bell rings.
Someone else has a story to tell →
03 · MEET OLLIE BRADSHAW
Ollie remembers.
Ollie pauses inside the doorway, adjusting his round glasses.
Across Main Street, Bradshaw Antiques holds objects that have passed through other hands, other homes, other lives. Ollie likes to know whose.
“Coffee?” Emma asks.
“If it wouldn’t interrupt anything.”
“You’ve come into a café, Ollie.”
“Yes. A point in my favor.”
He takes a seat.
Ollie can be hesitant with people. Give him an old object, though, and he becomes patient and precise. He’ll examine the wear, consider a repair, wonder who cared enough to keep it.
Listen for a while and you begin to understand why Emma listens to him. He remembers things. Including things Cedar Harbor would find easier to forget.
Meet the man who needs evidence →
04 · MEET DETECTIVE ETHAN CARTER
Ethan asks the next question.
Detective Ethan Carter lets people finish speaking. It’s a useful habit in a town where one answer can arrive wrapped in three other people’s opinions.
He listens to Ollie, then turns to Emma.
“And what did you actually see?”
Emma gives him a small smile.
“There’s the detective.”
Ethan is calm, attentive and careful about the distance between a suspicion and something he can prove.
Emma catches the detail that troubles her. Ollie supplies a memory nobody thought to ask for. Ethan asks the question that makes everyone reconsider what they know.
And somewhere between them, a story starts changing.
Cedar Harbor has a story for you →05 · SOME SECRETS WAIT
The town remembers differently.
Finish your coffee. Take a walk toward the lake.
You’ve met a few of the people who make Cedar Harbor feel like somewhere you could stay. Now imagine what happens when a discovery at the bluffs brings a disappearance from twenty-five years ago back into their lives.
That is where Buried Secrets, the first Cedar Harbor Cozy Mystery, begins.
Emma has worked hard to build her quieter life. Ollie has kept papers—and doubts. The town has lived with one version of the past for a very long time.
Soon, Emma will start asking questions.
Someone will wish she hadn’t.
06 · YOUR PLACE IN CEDAR HARBOR
Your first cases.
You know the café now. You know who will notice the hesitation, who might remember the name, and who will ask for evidence. There’s more to discover about all three.
Start with Book 1. Follow the cases in order.
Begin with Buried Secrets, then read The Mysterious Guest and Final Taste. For Emma’s earlier life, the prequel Before Silence is an optional first stop.
BOOK 1
Buried Secrets
See reading options →A few things before you settle in.
Where is Cedar Harbor set?
Cedar Harbor is the fictional Lake Michigan town at the heart of Anna de Wahl’s Cedar Harbor Cozy Mysteries.
Which book should I read first?
Buried Secrets is Book 1. You can also begin with Before Silence, the prequel about Emma’s earlier life. Continue with The Mysterious Guest and Final Taste.
Who are Emma, Ollie and Ethan?
Emma Chandler is a former Grand Rapids detective and owner of Brewed in the Morning. Ollie Bradshaw is an antique dealer with a precise eye and a long memory. Ethan Carter is a Cedar Harbor detective.
