A new cozy mystery series
The Ellen Douglas Mystery Series
A retired federal investigator. A quiet Indiana town. A small lie that refuses to stay small. The kind of mystery you start at the kitchen table and finish under the lamp.
What you can expect
Cozy, but never sleepy.
A heroine you trust
Ellen Douglas listened to her instincts for thirty-seven years on the job. Retirement did not turn them off.
A town you want to visit
Cascade has a trail, a diner, a librarian who knows your name, and a few neighbors who would prefer you stop asking.
A mystery that holds together
Clues that pay off. Suspects who feel like people. An ending that lands without cheating.
For readers who love
You will probably like Cascade.
- Agatha Christie's Miss Marple
- Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody
- Louise Penny's Three Pines novels
- Ann Cleeves' Shetland and Vera
- Slow Sunday mornings and a fresh pot of coffee
From the opening pages
“Some secrets won’t stay buried. And some retirees aren’t quite ready to retire.”
Murder in Cascade · An Ellen Douglas Mystery
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A short Ellen Douglas story, on the house.
Sign up for Jill’s newsletter and we’ll send you a free prequel story. It’s a quiet Cascade morning, a small wrong note in a familiar song, and Ellen’s first hint that retirement is not going to look the way she planned.
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Book One · June 12, 2026
Murder in Cascade
An Ellen Douglas Mystery
All Ellen Douglas wanted was a quiet autumn walk through Cascade Park with her dog Louisa. What she found there is something she never wanted to see.
Recently retired from a long career as a federal investigator, Ellen thought small-town Indiana would be the gentle next chapter she’d been hoping for. Long mornings on the trail. Coffee at the corner diner. Quiet afternoons in the home she shares with the memory of her late husband. Then she walked into the park, and the quiet ended.
Already on the way
An Accidental Murder
An Ellen Douglas Mystery · Coming Fall 2026
A second visit to Cascade. A second death that nobody quite wants to look at twice. A second chance for Ellen to find the thing everyone else is willing to call an accident.
Subscribers see the cover first.
One last thing
The first chapter is the easy part.
If any of this sounds like your kind of book, the next move is small. Get on the list. The prequel will be in your inbox by the end of the day.