Funerals and Familiars (A Cozy Midlife Witch Mystery) Willowmere Mysteries
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Oregon
Independently Published (May 23, 2025)

Synopsis

Midlife can be murder – or magic…

Almost fifty and freshly divorced, Bex Merriweather is going through The Change – battling hot flashes and night sweats. Little does she realize that when an elderly relative dies and leaves her a lending library in sleepy Willowmere, complete with cat, her whole life is going to change…

Turns out Aunt Violet left behind more than books and home-made herbal teas, like full-blown witch powers, and a small town where murder is very much on the menu. Even Cosmo the cat is no ordinary feline, but a sassy talking familiar. And when rumors about her aunt’s death begin to circulate, Bex has no choice but to embrace her witchy inheritance, and her inner detective.

Now the novice witch, armed only with her circle of lifelong friends and a snarky, judgemental cat mentor, must uncover the truth, before her newly acquired magical life goes up in smoke.

Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries, magical mayhem, and heroines who believe it’s never too late for a new chapter—or a little witchcraft!

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Guest Post

Have you ever thought you had your life mapped out? Everything under control? I did.

I spent so many years raising a family, supporting my spouse, working, and then it was all gone. Just like that. And I was back at square one. Only now I was older, with wrinkles that haven’t all been caused by laughing, not by a long shot. What I can teel you from experience is that, even if you don’t know where to go from here, getting a second chance at finally becoming your own person can be amazing. Granted, it might take a while to see all the positives after you feel like you’ve been discarded.

A least that’s what happened to me, at age 48. I’m Bex Merriweather, by the way. Only my former mother-in-law and in the final year of our marriage my former husband used to call me Rebecca, in a tone of a voice that implied long-suffering tolerance and resignation.

Anyway, here I was. Getting a divorce and losing my part of our business. Together with my husband, I had built a successful furniture restoration and home staging company that relied mostly on my talents, except lately I found out that my talent in matching objects with people and places was actually part of the witchy powers I was born with. Only now I also have inherited much stronger powers. All I need to do is learn how to use them. Sounds easy? Not if you are being mentored by an adorable but also infuriatingly exacting black cat who claims to have whipped generations of good witches into shape.

After having taken care of my darling daughter, who is now a university student, not so darling husband, home and business, I thought that going home and taking over Willowmere’s lending library would give me freedom and a chance to reconnect with myself. And it does. Kind of. It gave me the chance to meet the true me. Bex Merriwether, witch. Also, it appears, guardian of Willowmere and sleuth.

Had I but known that after my aunt’s death I would have to add amateur detective as well as a new witch to my job description, I might have run. I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but murder is something I haven’t had anything to do with so far. Cosmo, my familiar, the black cat I mentioned, has sworn on his nine lives that Willowmere has never been murder central. Still, we both get the impression that we may have our work cut out for us if we are really supposed to protect this tranquil small town in Oregon.

Apart from matching wits with the odd villain, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. For the first time in ages I feel home. I have my best friends around me. I learn new skills. I am appreciated. I don’t have to care about how I look like or deal with exhausting customers. I mean, I do deal with customers, but now they’re readers. They are book lovers and there is something deeply satisfying, seeing them delve into the magic of the written word, the world of stories.

Hmm. Why did I not notice that before? Books are magic! Maybe all libraries and book stores have a connection to the supernatural, like all cats possess the power of the purr.

But whatever powers I possess (or slowly pick up, according to Cosmo), if I had to choose between my old life before it unraveled, and my new life, I’d pick this one.

It might come with hot flashes, crow’s feet and the occasional well-meaning remark about aging spinsters, yet I’ve never felt more alive and happy to discover what lies ahead.

Whoever came up with the term second chapter was wrong. I intend to make this part of my life into an epic story – unless my double duties as witch and sleuth bring it to a sudden The End.

I hope not. I like the new me and I hope you do as well. And if your life has taken an unexpected turn, welcome to the club. More power to us!

About the Author

Carmen has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side.

She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter.

When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realised she was hooked for life.

The shaken but stirring novel made it to the longlist of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner. Since then, she has penned several more cozy mysteries, including the Genie and Adriana Darling ghost mysteries and the Jack and Frances series set in the 1930s.

Carmen now lives in Italy with her human and her four-legged family. Although she possesses no witchy powers, she’s known to be easily held spellbound by animals.

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