HYSTERIA AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Now that Halloween is in the rearview mirror in Eylan Hollow, Bailey Briggs is gearing up for the Christmas season at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, which she runs with help from her dedicated crew of workers and her big furry dog, Jack. At a reception where two competing historical societies will discuss mapping the town’s tunnel system, Bailey runs into bestselling horror author Rex Abbot—whom Bailey, raised by her grandparents, has recently learned is her biological father—and witnesses several arguments between society members. A few days later, she heads to the Museum of Peculiar Oddities, an unusual gift shop run by Finn Thomas, a childhood friend and romantic interest who’s just turned a bank vault in his building into an escape room that he’s invited her to visit ahead of its official opening. Bailey’s companions include Rex; Walter Reeves, from one of the historical societies; Graham Clark, a historical society member who’d argued with Walter; Karolyn Robertson, a local business owner; and Jude Collins, another dueling history buff. They don’t get very far in solving the escape-room mystery before Walter keels over dead with a head wound. Since the prime suspects are obviously the other people in the room, Bailey, who’s worked with police detective Andrew Whitlock before, decides to add crime-solving to her already packed holiday schedule. The collapse of a basement wall has revealed that the Lazy Bones is connected to the tunnels; further exploration shows that the bank vault is connected as well. Even if it’s no longer a locked room, its most recent occupants all had motives to kill Walter.