First snow. Familiar faces. A killer among the volunteers in this cozy Oregon mystery.

Alder Ridge's first-snow open house should mean homemade pie, warm coffee, and neighbors celebrating the people who keep their mountain town safe. Instead, a fire tears through the records room of a historic ranger cabin, and fire-association treasurer Warren Bale is found dead.

Independent wildfire investigator Mara Calder knows how to read what smoke leaves behind. With Ember, her retired detection spaniel, close by, she examines a scene the town is eager to call an accident. But a missing equipment ledger and one small inconsistency in the soot suggest someone had a very different reason for being inside that cabin.

Now Mara must untangle donation records, old grievances, and the loyalties of a volunteer community that has always looked after its own. Retired lookout Midge Holloway has an opinion on every road and every suspect. Sheriff Eli Mercer needs evidence he can use. And someone Mara knows is counting on friendship to keep the questions gentle.

In a town built on helping hands, which one is hiding a murder?

Point of Origin opens The Cascadia Fireline Mysteries with a fair-play puzzle, dry mountain-town humor, and a sharp-eyed investigator whose hardest cases begin where certainty ends.

For readers who love:

• Finding the telling detail everyone else walked past

• Oregon mountain towns with warmth and secrets

• A capable heroine and an opinionated spaniel

• Volunteer-firehouse friendships and deadpan humor

• Satisfying whodunits without graphic violence

Point Of Origin

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