A year into her own considerable reputation as Stonepeak’s unofficial investigator, Poppy Holt is asked to help secure the pack’s most treasured ceremonial artifact before its first public display in over a decade. Days later, the Founder’s Seal vanishes from its own secure display case, no forced lock, no witnesses, and a diplomatic ceremony bearing down in less than a week. The evidence points, uncomfortably, toward Denny Ashford, the one person whose past makes him the easiest suspect to believe. But Poppy refuses to let convenient history decide guilt before the actual evidence has spoken, and her careful investigation soon narrows toward someone nobody expected: the pack’s own beloved archivist, whose forty-three years of faithful service make her the least likely thief in the entire settlement. What Poppy uncovers isn’t simple theft. It’s a woman who found genuine, documented evidence that a ceremony now bearing down on the pack would violate a promise made three generations earlier, and who chose the wrong way to protect a truth she was right about all along. The Shopkeeper’s Alibi continues the Stonepeak Pack Mysteries with a genuine, fair-play whodunit: real clues, a real culprit, and a resolution that asks what a community owes someone who did something wrong for reasons that turn out to matter considerably more than the wrongdoing itself. What readers can expect: A genuine, fairly-clued mystery with real evidence to follow alongside Poppy A sympathetic culprit whose motive complicates easy judgment Continued growth for Poppy, Garrick, and Denny from the first book Clean, closed-door romance with zero explicit content A restorative resolution consistent with this world’s established values A complete, standalone-readable mystery within an ongoing series Grab your copy today and find out what a shopkeeper’s careful attention uncovers when the truth turns out considerably more complicated than a simple theft.