THE HAWTHORN HOUSE

Tess Daly has nothing left but a car and the stubborn refusal to go home. After her business partner empties their Portland bakery’s accounts and disappears, she drives west until the Oregon coast appears out of the fog. In the small town of Saltbreeze Harbor she finds a hand-lettered sign outside a yellow Victorian: Help Wanted — Cook, Hawthorn House B&B. The woman who opens the door is Agnes Hawthorn, seventy-something, silver-haired, and not in the habit of offering second chances. The attic room is small, the work starts before dawn, and one door on the ground floor stays locked.For a few days the arrangement almost feels like safety. Then a guest who has been asking too many questions about the house is found dead, and the quiet town Tess hoped would let her disappear starts watching her instead.Someone in Saltbreeze knows more than they’re saying. Someone else is willing to keep the truth buried a little longer. Tess only meant to cook breakfast. Now she has to decide how much of the house’s past she is willing to unearth before it buries her with it.Hawthorn House is a slow-burn coastal mystery about second chances, carefully kept secrets, and the price of deciding which doors to open.