When orchard owner Ellis Trewarthen is found dead inside his own cider press, the town of St Merryn's Cove blames tragedy, bad luck... or one of the orchard's many whispered curses. Demelza Pascoe, bookshop owner and reluctant sleuth, isn't so convinced.
Ellis wasn't the type to make careless mistakes-and the orchard's ghostly elder trees have been at the heart of more than one town dispute. As Demelza digs deeper, she uncovers missing ledgers, strange charms buried at the roots, and a folklorist whose devotion to the land borders on obsession.
With the community divided, her brother DS Adam chasing hard evidence, and rumours rising faster than a batch of scrumpy, Demelza must untangle secrets woven through generations of cider-making, superstition, and grief. But the truth is knotted tight-and someone has gone to great lengths to silence it.
Warm, witty, and steeped in Cornish lore, Death in the Orchard is a cosy mystery about tradition, obsession, and the quiet power of the stories we choose to believe.
