We’re delighted to share that the first eight books in the Good Neighbors Mysteries series are now available as ebooks.
At Smith & Word, we aim to create curious books for curious readers, and this series is a clear expressions of that idea. The Good Neighbors Mysteries are cozy mysteries set in real towns, where familiar streets, local landmarks, and everyday lives hide more than first meets the eye. Each book draws on the character and history of an actual place while unraveling a mystery rooted in what makes that town unique. The result, we hope, is something gentle in tone, rich in setting, and just a little uncanny.
The series grew out of a long-standing love of books about real places. Some are travel guides. Some are local histories. Some simply capture a town so vividly that reading becomes its own kind of visit. There is a special pleasure in that sort of book. If you’ve been to the place, each page can bring back its streets, weather, textures, and moods. If you haven’t, it can feel like traveling there from the comfort of your favorite chair.
As we experimented with writing fiction set in real towns, we realized those places made wonderful settings for murder mysteries. A mystery gives readers a reason to move through a place, to notice its landmarks, rhythms, and histories, and to spend time with the people who call it home.
That might already have been enough for a satisfying series. But we decided to take the idea one step further.
Each Good Neighbors Mystery also contains a hidden layer, a secret woven into the life of the town itself. That secret is not the point of the story so much as a truth that complicates the mystery and casts the familiar in a different light. We won’t say more than that here. Part of the pleasure is in discovering each town’s particular strangeness for yourself.
The first eight books are:
- Empty Graves — Redmond, Washington (novella)
- What Grows Beneath — Gilbert, Arizona (novella)
- The Boy at Donkey Creek — Gig Harbor, Washington
- The Changeling’s Garden — Rostock, Germany
- The Parliament of Crows — Castres, France
- The Threshold Guardians — Sausalito, California
- The White Lady of Balgay — Dundee, Scotland
- What the Stone Remembers — Marble Falls, Texas
As the series developed, we also experimented with length. Over time, we came to appreciate the value of giving each town time to come alive, each cast time to settle in, and each mystery time to unfold fairly and satisfyingly. Two of the books, Empty Graves and What Grows Beneath, remain shorter and are being offered as novellas. We’ll be interested to hear which lengths readers prefer.
We’ve loved building these books, and we hope readers will enjoy exploring them. Browse the Good Neighbors Mysteries for more information and purchase links.
And one small favor, if you do pick one up: reviews matter. A great many books arrive on ebook shelves every week, and reader word of mouth makes a real difference. If you enjoy one of the books, we’d be grateful if you left a review at your preferred ebook store. And if something didn’t work for you, we’d still love to hear that too. Thoughtful reader feedback helps us make the next books better.
We’re glad to have you with us as these towns begin to open their doors.