Death on Dickens Island: A Books on the Beach Mystery
by Allison Brook
About Death on Dickens Island
Death on Dickens Island: A Books on the Beach Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – On Dickens Island, a fictional island in the Long Island Sound between Long Island and CT.
Publisher : Crooked Lane Books
Publication date : October 21, 2025
Hardcover
Print length : 320 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8892420488
Paperback
ISBN-13 : 979-8892422536
Digital
ISBN-13 : 979-8892420495
ASIN : B0DTNMGQTK
Audiobook ASIN: B0DT4WXPWL
A divorced sleuth in her thirties must bring peace back to her small town after a murder tears neighbors and family members apart in this series debut from Agatha Award nominee Allison Brook, perfect for fans of Cynthia Riggs and Eva Gates.
Delia Dickens has come home to Dickens Island, a small island in the Long Island Sound, after a twelve-year stint in Manhattan. She’s looking forward to helping her father revitalize the general store that the family owns as well as curating a small book nook. Most importantly, she wants to reunite with her fifteen-year-old son. But Dickens Island isn’t the peaceful town Delia remembers–and she might be in more danger here than she ever was in the big city.
Delia’s Aunt Reenie and Uncle Brad, both prominent community leaders, are at odds over the sale of a farm and its future use. This has created friction, not only in their marriage, but amongst the citizens of the town. When a young woman, new to the town council and friendly with Brad, is found murdered, everything escalates and reaches a new boiling point.
With Reenie and Brad both suspects in the case and at each other’s throats, the townspeople start to take sides. When the ghost of her grandmother visits her, Delia learns how past events have impacted the present, and it is up to her to expose the farm’s sordid secrets in order to catch a murderer and restore peace to her beloved island.
GUEST POST
I’m happy to be Debbie’s guest today talking about my latest mystery, DEATH ON DICKENS ISLAND, the first book in my Books on the Beach Mystery series. Starting a new series is a great undertaking. Aside from the mysteries that need to be solved, I had to create a cast of characters and a unique setting that will be featured throughout the series. And always in the back of my mind I wondered: Will my readers love this series as much as the last one I’d written.
Readers of my Haunted Library books had grown fond of my sleuth, Carrie Singleton, her friends and colleagues, and the town of Clover Ridge, Connecticut. At the start of DEATH OVERDUE, the first book in the series, Carrie is unhappy, unsettled, and unfulfilled. She’s ready to leave town; it doesn’t matter where to. And then she’s offered the position of head of programs and events in the Clover Ridge Library. Over the course of eight books, Carrie matures, makes friends and finds love as she solves mysteries with the help of her ghost friend, Evelyn Havers. As soon as I started to write BOOKED ON MURDER, the eighth book in the series, I realized that Carrie had come into her own. Her story arc was complete.
Time to start a new series, I decided. Yes, I felt a bit guilty when some readers told me they didn’t want the series to end, but I was ready to explore a new world filled with new characters. I knew I wanted to set my series on an island of my creation, located smack in the middle of the Long Island Sound, between Long Island and Connecticut. The island was purchased by Nathanial Dickens in the last half of the eighteenth century, and the Dickens family is still active in its government and island activities.
My sleuth, Delia Dickens, has recently returned to the island to live with her fifteen-year-old son Connor in the beautiful Victorian home that Helena, her grandmother, left her when she died. Helena appears when Delia’s in the secret room that Connor has discovered. Readers learn about Helena’s early life and how the past impacts the murders that Delia helps solve. Delia’s s Aunt Reenie is the island’s manager (mayor); her husband, Delia’s Uncle Brad, is the president of the town council. The two, while madly in love, are often at loggerheads when it comes to the island’s growth and development. Carrie’s father, who sees himself as the island’s patriarch but shies away from confrontation, expects Delia to smooth things over–an impossible task. And then a young woman is murdered and Uncle Brad is Suspect Number One.
Riley, a Bearded Collie with a very matted coat, follows Connor home one day and seems to have adopted Delia and Connor as his family. But Delia knows the dog must belong to someone and so she brings him to Jack Morrison, the local vet, who also happens to be the guy who broke her heart when they were young.
So much happens in this new world of Dickens Island. I know it takes time for readers to fall in love with a new series, but the many glowing reviews I’ve received give me hope that this will happen.
About Allison Brook
A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, novels of suspense, and books for kids. Her books have received many accolades. As Allison Brook she writes the Haunted Library series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series, the Twin Lakes series, and Giving Up the Ghost. Her suspense, Come Home to Death, was released in April 2024, and her suspense, Dangerous Relations, will be republished in 2025. Death on Dickens Island is the first book in her Books on the Beach series.
Marilyn’s juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice and has recently come out in a new edition. Rufus and the Witch’s Drudge, the second book in the series, has been released, and the third, Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic, will be out later this year. And Don’t Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards. Her YA horror, The Devil’s Pawn, came out in a new edition in January 2024.
Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place. She loves traveling, reading, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, chatting on FaceTime with her grandkids, and playing with her kittens, Romeo and Juliet.
Author Links
Website/Newsletter Sign Up: http://www.marilynlevinson.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.levinson.10
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/161602.Marilyn_Levinson
X: https://twitter.com/MarilynLevinson
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/marilyn-levinson
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/allison-brook
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marilynlevinsonauthor/
Purchase Links: Amazon B&N Bookshop.org PenguinRandomHouse
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
October 21 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 21 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
October 21 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – REVIEW
October 22 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
October 22 – Baroness Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 22 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
October 23 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW
October 23 – Wine Cellar Library – SPOTLIGHT
October 23 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 24 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
October 24 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
October 24 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
October 25 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
October 25 – Sarandipity’s – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 25 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
October 26 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 26 – Christa Reads and Writes – SPOTLIGHT
October 27 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
October 27 – Salty Inspirations – SPOTLIGHT
October 28 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
October 28 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
October 28 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
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