Some families are easier to leave than to return to.
Maren Vell has built a good life as the locksmith of Copperwhistle Bridge. But when candles from Thornwick’s most respected chandleries begin burning at dangerous rates, Inspector Rowe brings the case to this amateur sleuth. Someone is sabotaging guild-certified shops, and among the accused is Orwin Fenwick—the father her partner Sable has kept at arm’s length for six years.
Sable leaves without warning, pulled back to Thornarch Bridge by a loyalty she thought she’d outgrown. Maren takes the case to clear Orwin’s name, but she’s also watching her partner struggle with a question that has no easy answer: Can you honor where you came from without giving up who you’ve become?
The mystery isn’t just about who is destroying candles. It’s about what happens when people believe they have to choose between the family they were born into and the family they’ve built.