Lies, Lines, and Lethal Falls: a Willow Glen Cozy Mystery

by Lois Fields

A home tour was supposed to showcase Willow Glen’s most charming properties—not expose its deadliest secrets.
When Kent Bellamy plunges from a second-story balcony, event planner Shannon McKay is told it was a tragic accident. But one detail refuses to the railing didn’t simply fail.
It was weakened.
As Shannon digs into the town’s quiet corners, she uncovers a pattern of property purchases, missing documents, and a boundary dispute that could reshape the entire neighborhood. The obvious suspect is a man with money, motive, and a plan.
But the deeper she looks, the more Shannon realizes something unsettling—
The truth isn’t hiding in the big picture.
It’s waiting somewhere much closer to home.
With help from her gossip-queen friend Lorraine, her endlessly curious father Mac, and her three-legged “detective dog” Buddy, Shannon must untangle lies, land deals, and long-standing grudges before someone else takes a fatal fall.
Because in Willow Glen…
Even the smallest line can lead to murder.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 30, 2026

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Shannon and her detective dog Buddy stumble into a death that looks like it’s an accident but turns out it’s not. Kent Bellamy falls from his balcony to the ground below and a lot of speculations were going around as well as who could be responsible. I definitely didn’t guess who was responsible and I like how the author waited til the end to reveal the truth. I felt it helped build up the tension throughout the book until the very end. I enjoyed the diverse characters in the story and definitely enjoyed the furry sidekick as well as the main character, Shannon, in the story and how her character along with several other characters (the beauty salon ladies) tried to talk it through and worked to figure it all out. Great cozy mystery.

[Mrs K.Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lies, Lines, and Lethal Falls is a Superb story and series about Shannon Mckay an Event Planner and her very clever dog Buddy. Shannon and Buddy go to the Preview of the Willow Glen Home and Garden Tour for Volunteers. But while there the Owner of the house fell from the Balcony. Deputy Jeffery Clayton comes to investigate. Shannon looks for clues as she notices things that were wrong. She is assisted in her research by her Father Professor Mac. There a few twists and turns and some surprising events. But can Shannon discover all the clues and uncover the truth?
I enjoyed reading this story very much and I highly recommend that you read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Lorraine O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

The town is having it's annual Garden Tour and Shannon is in charge of setting it up. One of the homeowners on the tour is killed. Read the story and find out how and most importantly, why. It is rated 2 stars because much of the verbiage is repeated many times as if it were something new and it was not. I found this annoying, so 2* is generous. I suggest the author take some writing classes and/or read her stories out loud before she sends them to the editor.
Read on 04/23/26. I am an ARC reader.

[GinaB. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lies, Lines & Lethal Falls is another great story with Buddy the 3-legged furry detective event planner Shannon McKay in the Willow Glen series! She spent weeks working on the Home & Garden Tour meant to showcase 100-year old historic homes in Willow Glen when the owner of the home volunteers were meeting in fell from a third floor balcony & died. Since the balcony looked odd to her, that meant Shannon, her dad Professor Mac, her pal Lorraine & Buddy the terrier went to work & solved the mystery. I received this great cozy mystery as an ARC from Book Sprout & am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Megan Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. A charming mystery. Fields has a distinctive writing style.

*Spoiler alert:

Yeah, I thought that Greg didn’t seem angry enough when Shannon confronted him as being the culprit. I know that he seemed to fit the motive perfectly, but I still wondered if information was missing from all these other suspicious people. And I was right!