Recipe for Retribution

A cold case frozen in time. A town buried in secrets. And a killer who will burn it all to stay hidden.

Former investigative journalist Maya Lin moved to the foggy, isolated town of Blackwood Cove for a quiet life. Now, she spends her mornings baking sourdough and her afternoons hosting a low-traffic true-crime podcast. It's a peaceful routine until a rotted basement floorboard collapses, revealing a rusted tin box hidden since 1996.

Inside is the diary of Laura Vance, a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl who vanished into the Pacific Northwest fog three decades ago.

The official record says Laura was a runaway. The diary says she was murdered.

When Maya reads the frantic final diary entries on her podcast, the quiet coastal town turns hostile. The local internet goes dark, a brick shatters her bakery window, and the smooth-talking Mayor drops by with a chilling warning to leave the past buried.

Armed with nothing but a rusted lighthouse key and a microphone, Maya teams up with a rogue deputy to untangle a conspiracy that loops from corrupt politicians to the highest levels of local law enforcement. But in Blackwood Cove, the fog hides more than just the sea, and the killer is already clearing away loose ends.

If Maya can't decode the final clues in time, her next podcast episode will be her last.

If you love atmospheric Pacific Northwest settings, sharp-witted female sleuths, and small-town mysteries with a dark, twisting edge, you won't be able to put down this gripping page-turner.