Under Lock And Key

A small-town cozy mystery with one dead clerk, one impossible lock, and a town full of spare keys. Rachel Harlow knows how to open a stubborn safe, read a worn key, and keep a customer's confidence. Since her father's stroke, she has also been learning how to run Harlow Lock & Safe—with an eager apprentice at the bench and a portly cat claiming the shop window. Finding a body was never part of the job. When the shuttered Corliss Foundry goes up for auction, Rachel is hired to open its old office safe. Then retired payroll clerk Harold Meese is found dead inside a locked cage. The town sees a tragic accident. Rachel sees a bolt that tells a different story. Insurance investigator Nate Brandt needs her expert opinion. Rachel needs answers from the Ledger, her family's handwritten record of the keys they have cut and the doors they have opened. But an unfinished entry leads back to an unsolved 1974 payroll robbery—and a secret Corliss Landing has had decades to polish into respectability. Who had the key? Who has been lying? And how much trouble can one honest locksmith unlock? Under Lock and Key introduces The Master Key Mysteries, blending a Hudson Valley setting, fair-play clues, dry humor, and the first sparks of a gentle romance. For readers who love: • A capable female sleuth with an unusual trade • Locked-door puzzles and long-buried town secrets • Family businesses, diner gossip, and a scene-stealing cat • Clean cozy mysteries with a touch of romance