A storm-battered bed-and-breakfast on the Oregon coast holds a secret that has outlasted eight decades of weather—and it takes a newly arrived innkeeper to uncover it. Nora Lynn’s Dead Space: A Cozy Resting Place, the second installment in the Sara Hampton Cozy Mysteries series, drops readers into a murder puzzle where the killer may have hidden in plain sight all along.
When Sara Hampton arrives with Butch to claim the bed-and-breakfast she inherited from Aunt Jane, she expects a fresh start on the Oregon coast. Instead, her first night brings a murder mystery. A massive fir tree crashes through a wall, exposing a skeleton deliberately concealed inside a house that has weathered storms for more than eight decades.
The property was once a silent-film star’s vacation home, and the grim discovery raises immediate questions about both the victim and whoever had the time to kill, pose a body, and hide it behind a false wall. Could the actor have tucked away his harshest critic there? Could his estranged daughter have killed him to inherit twenty oceanfront acres? A local antique dealer—who stripped much of the derelict mansion’s finery before Sara’s uncle Jeffery bought it for Aunt Jane—also emerges as a possible suspect.
Aunt Jane has called the house home since 1988, but the skeleton’s age remains unclear. What is clear: the revelation brings immediate danger rather than simply reopening the property’s past. Threats and break-ins push Sara to find answers quickly. A warning note threatens her with a place inside the wall beside the victim, making it plain that someone still has a stake in what the house has hidden.
For readers drawn to mysteries built around an unusual discovery, the central puzzle involves more than identifying a killer. Access to the home, the time needed to conceal the victim, and the skeleton’s conspicuous pose all matter. The storm exposes evidence without explaining it, leaving questions of identity, opportunity, and motive intertwined from the outset.
The coastal setting also plays a concrete role in the mystery. The oceanfront acreage represents a potential inheritance, while the mansion’s former finery ties its history to the antique dealer. Its successive lives—as a film star’s retreat and Aunt Jane’s B&B, which Sara later inherits—bring different people into the same property’s story.
Alongside the elements of the cozy mystery, Lynn gives Sara a purpose beyond investigating danger. The author describes her protagonist as someone who moves forward by helping wherever she can, an outlook Lynn connects to her own purpose in life and her faith. That emphasis offers a character-centered point of interest alongside the concealed-crime puzzle: Sara is taking responsibility for a business while trying to be useful to others.
“Sara is trying to start a new chapter in her life after her husband’s death. That was inspired by my own situation.” — NORA LYNN
Nora Lynn is the author of Dead Space: A Cozy Resting Place, Book 2 in the Sara Hampton Cozy Mysteries. Writing has always been a passion for her, and she enjoys the creative process.
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Nora Lynn
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Why it matters: This cozy mystery turns a familiar genre trope—a hidden body—into a layered puzzle where setting, inheritance, and history all collide. For readers, it’s a reminder that the past rarely stays buried, especially when a new owner is trying to build a future on top of it.
