Leashes & Lies

The safest place in Mosswood is where the lie was buried.

Dog walker Ivy Rowe knows every trail, every regular, and every small-town routine that keeps Bracken Ridge feeling safe. It is the place she rebuilt her life. The place that helped her put herself back together.

Then her corgi, Watson, uncovers a leash that should not exist.

A year ago, Harper Sloan vanished near Black Fern Drop, and the town settled on the explanation that made grief bearable: the weather turned, the trail gave way, and the mountain kept its secrets. But Ivy knows the leash Watson finds. She repaired its clasp herself three days before Harper disappeared.

The clasp is intact.
The leash did not fail.
Someone buried it.

As Ivy starts asking questions, Mosswood offers what small towns always offer first: concern, memory, ritual... and silence. Everyone remembered Harper differently. Everyone seems to know just enough to keep the story tidy. But the more Ivy follows Watson's instincts, the more she uncovers hidden notes, uneasy loyalties, and the possibility that Harper didn't simply get lost on the trail. She got too close to something someone needed buried.

Now Ivy is no longer just protecting her clients, her dogs, and her carefully rebuilt routine. She's risking the thing she trusted most: her belief that Bracken Ridge was safe, and that the people around her were exactly who they seemed to be.

Leashes & Lies is a smart, atmospheric cozy mystery with a sharp emotional edge-perfect for readers who love loyal dogs, watchful heroines, small-town secrets, and mysteries where local knowledge matters as much as the clues.

Start walking the trail-but don't expect everyone in Mosswood to tell the truth.