A village baker blamed for a judge’s death. A cheesemaker who vouches for her. One Lake District Christmas market full of suspects.

Rosie Tattersall, Village Baker and Amateur Sleuth. Rosie bakes from her late father’s recipe cards at the Thornmere Bakehouse. When television critic Nigel Prendergast calls her mince pie under-spiced, she is the one who finds him dead in the judging pavilion next morning. She wants to prove her baking had nothing to do with it. Her stall is suspended, eleven orders cancel in one morning, and Thornmere has made up its mind.

Sam Nithercott, Herdwick Cheesemaker at the Next Stall. Sam has sold cheese beside Rosie for four years and said perhaps two hundred words to her. When the village votes against her, he stands up to vouch for her. Speaking up puts him back before a village he has avoided since the farm was sold.

If the gossip wins, Rosie loses the nine days of trade that carry the Bakehouse to Easter, and the scout from Crumb & Co., already circling her lease, moves all the faster. Whoever really did it goes on wishing the vicar a happy Christmas.

Somebody stood at the police tape and watched her take the blame. She means to find out who.

– baker amateur sleuth — a village baker working from her late father’s recipe cards

– Christmas market mystery — twenty stalls, fairy lights and a judging pavilion on the village green

– clearing her name — a whole village whispering that her mince pies killed the judge

– food critic victim — a television judge in a silk scarf with a cruel line for local cooks

– British village cosy mystery — slate cottages, a church green and a lake below the Cumbrian fells

– village rumour mill — a postmistress with a file on anyone who has had post redirected to her counter, and a green that never stops talking

– amateur sleuth and village sergeant — a kindly sergeant who cuts the cake before he gives the news

– slow-burn romance — the quiet cheesemaker at the next stall

– clean cosy fiction — no profanity, a death discovered rather than shown

Perfect for fans of Christmas cosy mysteries with a village baker sleuth, British village whodunits set in the Lake District, and slow-burn romance at the market stall next door.

Put the kettle on and start Book 1 of the Lakeland Christmas Cosy Mystery series today.

Heat Level: Closed Door (no on-page intimacy)

Tone: Cosy · Witty · Heart-warming

Series Type: Book 1 in the Lakeland Christmas Cosy Mystery series — each book reads as a standalone

Ending: Hopeful close

POV: Single POV · Third Person

Content Notes: off-page death, grief, mild peril