Mud Season

Mud season has arrived in Ridgeway Springs, and innkeeper Eloise Stevens expects the usual spring headaches: buckled pathways, soggy gardens, and a long list of repairs at the historic Ridgeway Springs Inn. What she doesn't expect is the discovery that turns her backyard into a crime scene.

While investigating frost damage in the garden, Eloise uncovers a waterproof case containing a thirty-year-old letter hinting at danger, and the name of a man who feared the truth would cost him his life. The next day, a landscaping crew digging beneath the forsythia bushes makes an even more chilling discovery: human remains buried decades ago.

The victim appears to be Calvin Young, a surveyor who vanished in 1991 and was officially ruled to have left town voluntarily. But the letter suggests someone believed otherwise, and trusted Eloise's late father to keep the truth safe.

With the town buzzing, suspects emerging from old records and local memories, and law enforcement scrutinizing the property owner herself, Eloise begins piecing together the puzzle. But as past secrets surface, one question becomes impossible to ignore:

What really happened in Ridgeway Springs thirty years ago, and why was it buried in her garden?