A Brush With Murder: Book One of the Adellan Mysteries

By Madeline Hart

In the quiet village of Adellan, Nol has always painted what people ask for - signs, portraits, the occasional wedding commission paid in cider and cabbages. What she's never told anyone is that when she grinds a fragment of an object into her paint, the colors remember. Not metaphorically. Literally.

When a Phengale merchant is found dead in the village's only inn - no forced door, no struggle, nothing taken but the last of his smile - Nol has a choice most painters never face: use a gift she's spent her whole life hiding, or let a good man take the blame for a killing born of ten-year-old grief.

As the harvest festival draws the whole Vale together and a coldly polite agent of a distant House starts asking questions that have nothing to do with the murder, Nol will have to decide how much of herself she's willing to spend to find the truth - and what it costs a village to forgive the wrong person for the right reasons.

A Brush With Murder is a cozy fantasy mystery for anyone who wants their whodunit served with lavender, festival cider, one deeply opinionated fox, and a magic system built entirely on the things we can't stop ourselves from noticing.

Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries with a little bit of wonder folded in - gentle stakes, a slow-burn romance, and a village worth moving to.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HB46LHZX
• ISBN13: 9798188574710
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"