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The Cooper's Measure
Paperback
Series: Saltstone Mysteries, Book 5
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 1 2026
Pages: 190
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.40 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A frozen Maine harbor. A century-old cider press. A death that is anything but an accident.
When December arrives on the island of Saltstone, appraiser Maeve Vance expects a quiet winter cataloging estate lots. Hired by the Warren Hollis estate to conduct a strictly bounded inventory of the historic Hollis Cider Mill and Cooperage, Maeve arrives to find competing claims, contentious wharf leases, and an island community already on edge over a proposed school consolidation.
The appraisal takes a grim turn when Owen Delahunt, an outside buyer scouting orchard equipment for Grell Orchard Supply, is discovered pinned beneath the fallen oak crosshead of the primary rack-and-cloth press. At first glance, it appears to be a tragic mechanical failure born of deferred maintenance. But Maeve's careful baseline photographs and material examination reveal subtle physical anomalies that refuse to fit the community's easy explanation.
Working within strict professional boundaries alongside Deputy Ned Corbin and State Police Detective Sergeant Frank MacIntyre, Maeve traces custody records, tool signatures, and archival leases across the frozen harbor. With every stakeholder concealing private stakes and municipal pressures threatening to derail the truth, Maeve must follow the physical evidence where it leads before the island's fragile trust gives way.
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