A village murder mystery
A novel by Wrenna Sorrel
A village fête. A staged murder. A real body. Reporter Miss Reed arrives in Oakhaven to write about the Summer Fête's theatrical murder-mystery game. Then the performance turns deadly, and the harmless stage arrangement becomes the scene of a genuine killing.
When suspicion falls on the village baker, Reed sees a pattern others miss: the killing follows the game's own script.
What this book explores
Oakhaven’s annual Summer Fête is meant to end with applause, not a cordon. During a brief lantern flicker, the harmless stage arrangement of the murder-mystery game is replaced by a real knife, and Reginald Finch dies before the audience can applaud his return.
Miss Reed arrives expecting to write a substantial article for the Oakhaven Chronicle. What she uncovers demands something harder: an investigation that pits a newspaper deadline against the responsibility of telling the whole story.
The timing, stage position, victim and theatrical circumstances of the killing seem lifted from the game’s own script. In Finch’s office Reed finds a concealed space and a script with a cleanly removed third chapter. Someone wanted the game found, but not the part that explains its true purpose.
By morning, suspicion settles on baker Alistair Croft, whose spade is found at the scene and whose account of the evening has troubling gaps. But Reed sees a pattern where others see a convenient suspect.
Finch’s debts, Gwendolyn Price’s threatened past, Agnes Plum’s guarded behavior: beneath the fête’s cheerful surface lies a web of coercion, planted evidence and concealed loyalties, behind an orderly public face.
Reed is not a police officer. She is a newcomer with a press card and a habit of noticing, which lets her ask the questions the village would prefer to leave alone. Her pursuit of the truth continues even when the simplest account is the most misleading.
Why readers choose it
The Fête of False Alibis is a village mystery about a reporter pursuing the truth when every alibi is convenient and every neighbor has something to protect. Its pleasure is the slow, exacting work of an outsider with a press card: reading gaps in accounts, following debts and blackmail, and refusing the tidy story the village would prefer to print. Read on to uncover who shaped the deception, why Oakhaven's secrets were worth protecting, and what justice costs when the law is not trusted.
Who it is for
Reader questions
The Fête of False Alibis is a village murder mystery by Wrenna Sorrel. Reporter Miss Reed visits Oakhaven to cover the annual Summer Fête and its theatrical murder-mystery game, but the staged crime turns real: during a lantern flicker, a harmless stage arrangement is replaced by a real knife and Reginald Finch is killed. When suspicion falls on baker Alistair Croft, Reed notices the killing mirrors the game’s own structure and begins an investigation of her own.
It is village mystery fiction: a close-knit community, local secrets, a body at a public event, and a reporter-led investigation that uncovers coercion, planted evidence, and concealed loyalties. Rather than a narrow shelf label, expect a traditional village mystery with real menace behind its orderly public face.
Miss Reed is a newspaper reporter, not a police officer. She arrives in Oakhaven hoping a substantial article for the Oakhaven Chronicle will earn her a more prominent byline. When the murder happens, her professional assignment develops into a full investigation of the crime and the misleading story surrounding it.
The game appears to be the killer’s blueprint rather than mere backdrop. The killing follows the murder-mystery game’s structure: its timing, stage position, victim, and theatrical circumstances. Reed also discovers a script in Finch’s office with a cleanly removed third chapter, suggesting someone wanted the game found but not the part explaining its true purpose.
The book explores truth versus convenient narratives, the weight of public respectability, coercion and concealed loyalties, and the responsibilities of journalism when the simplest account is also the most misleading. It asks what justice costs when the law is not trusted.
The story is set in Oakhaven, an orderly village whose annual Summer Fête becomes the setting for a public performance, a real murder, and an investigation into the secrets the community would rather keep behind its cheerful surface.
The Fête of False Alibis is by Wrenna Sorrel, who also appears as the author on the book’s Amazon listing.
The book’s Amazon listing gives October 4, 2026 as the publication date for The Fête of False Alibis.
Book and author
The Fête of False Alibis is by Wrenna Sorrel.
A staged murder, a real body, and a village full of convenient stories. Follow Miss Reed into Oakhaven and uncover who shaped the deception at the heart of the fête.
Links open the book's Amazon listing in a new tab.