The Chowder House Murder (Downeast Maine Mystery #1)

The Chowder House Murder (Downeast Maine Mystery #1) by Lee Hollis is out now, published May 26, 2026.

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The Chowder House Murder (Downeast Maine Mystery #1)

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The Chowder House Murder (Downeast Maine Mystery #1) Release Date: May 26, 2026

Published

The first in a brand new, multi-generational cozy mystery series introduces three generations of strong, no-nonsense women who head the Holbrook family seafood dynasty in Downeast Maine…and a murder the Holbrook matriarch and her granddaughter must solve, even as it entangles them in a web of small-town secrets, and a Hatfields and McCoys-level chowder rivalry.

Ever since Halibut Cove’s popular eatery, The Chowder House, started serving matriarch Maggie Holbrook’s famous clam chowder it’s been in high demand. Cooked up at the restaurant by Maggie’s ambitious 19-year-old granddaughter, Audrey, the dish even has a regular nightly customer, retiree Chips Hogan. . . . Until one fateful Sunday night.

After serving Chips his chowder, Audrey rushes off to Maggie’s hilltop home for the weekly family dinner with the rest of the Holbrooks—her three uncles, and her mom, Jill. But before the meal’s end, Jill, a police chief, gets an alarming call. Chips has been found in the street—dead. Jill races out to investigate . . . and is shocked to learn Chips’ chowder was poisoned.

When a Chowder House server recalls seeing local diner cook Waldo Duggan in the alley that same evening, he becomes a suspect. And when it’s uncovered that Waldo bitterly believed the Holbrooks stole the lucrative chowder recipe from the Duggans in the 1930’s, he’s only further implicated . . .

Despite everything, Maggie can’t believe Waldo would murder anyone. For fair-minded Maggie, to keep an innocent man out of jail, and to ease Audrey’s guilt over serving the chowder, there’s no choice but to team-up to crime solve. Soon grandmother and granddaughter are immersed in a stew of rivalries, long held feuds, and looming threats. Because beneath the surface, even a pretty town has its ugly side . . .

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Genre: Cozy Mystery

Lee Hollis

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