Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

a small office that was lined with cork boards; hundreds of fliers pinned up advertising past events. The desk had a large piece of card with ‘Battle of the Bands’ elegantly written across the top. The dates were for this week.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“About what?”

“This! The competition! They used to run it every year, but it fizzled out for some reason. I asked if we could bring it back and they said yes!” Kate grinned.

“What we actually said was…” Scott groaned from the doorway, “that you could bring it back as long as you agreed to do all the work. I’ve put in hundreds of hours listening to songs recorded in people’s bathrooms, I can’t take anymore.” He smirked at us both and Kate playfully punched him in the arm.

“Scott, it can’t be that bad,” she laughed.

“It can be, and it is,” he smiled. “We live on an isolated group of islands; do you know just how many songs about sand you are gonna get because of this?”

“You have an airport, don’t people travel?” I asked.

“Ha!” Kate and Scott both guffawed.

“That airport is for tourists,” Kate explained. She looked up at the time on a wall clock. “Oh shoot, I’m supposed to be on air in two minutes!” She grabbed me and pulled me past Scott and through another door.

The room we were now in was obviously the studio. There were microphones on pivoting metal structures hanging from the ceiling, multiple computer screens and a desk covered in buttons. Someone had fitted a strip of blue lights around the edge of the desk that made the whole thing glow like a spaceship.

“Goooood evening Hallow Haven, you are listening to The Trident with me, Kate Knockout. Let’s ease you into the show with a little flute piece that I don’t know the name of,” she crooned. She pulled the headphones back off her head and let out a sigh. “Well that was close. Whoops, mic was still on,” she laughed, pushing a button.

“Kate Knockout?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, everyone has cool, alliterative names when they present on the radio. Scott’s name on here is just ‘Single Scott’, he really wants a girlfriend. I picked Knockout thinking it sounded edgy, but I didn’t take into account that the ‘K’ in knockout is silent, so it doesn’t sound alliterative. Oh well. I’m gonna announce the Battle of the Bands tonight, it’s gonna be nuts.”

“You’re announcing it now? It’s so late!” I said.

“Sadie, my show is on through the weirdest part of the night. They said it could only run this year if I took over and this is the only time I can do it! Trust me, enough people on the island listen that word will get around. I have some posters to put up tomorrow too.”

The air over my right shoulder started to feel cold. I turned to see the hazy outline of Greta, my dead cousin, forming behind me. Seeing ghosts was strange, but thankfully she was the only one I’d seen so far, no scary specters had visited me yet.

“What’s up, man?” Kate cheered. “Long time no spook.”

“I’ve been busy,” Greta explained. “Who knew that being dead would mean being more active than when I was alive?”

“Are you here for the Battle of the Bands?” I laughed. “You could write something really fantastical about the afterlife.”

“You don’t even want to know what the afterlife is like,” she sighed. “But yeah, I know Kate is excited about it. I’m here to support. Go get ‘em, Knockout!”

I gave Kate an encouraging high five as the flute solo was drawing to an end and the sound engineer on the other side of some soundproof glass began waving frantically.

“You’re back with Knockout, and I am about to deliver the most epically awesome news of the year. Brace yourselves. The Battle of the Bands is back, baby! If you are a budding musician looking for your break, this could be the moment you’ve been waiting for.

“We are giving one lucky winner the opportunity to have their song played on prime time, a full day in a recording studio paid for by us, and a headline slot at the music festival weekend. This is huge! To enter, you need to submit a recording of an original song to us, either through the mail or via the website, and we will be judging with non-other than our very own resident peacekeeper, Sadie Alden!”

I almost fell over.

“What?!” I mouthed at her.

“Oh you guys, she is so excited to hear your stuff. Tell your friends, tell your parents, tell your weird neighbors. The competition is officially open!”

The phone on the desk was covered with a number of buttons that were now all flashing with incoming calls.

“Oh boy, you’re in for a rough week,” Greta laughed. “I was roped into this once, I probably should have warned you.”

“How bad can it be?” I said.

I was about to find out.

2

After spending half an hour listening to Kate answering phone calls live on air, I had left the studio and wandered back home. My house was attached to the café on the beach, and Effie had already locked up and left by the time I arrived.

I had crawled into bed and set my alarm for the morning. I knew that we had a big day of baking ahead of us, so I wanted to get an early start. It wasn’t my alarm that woke me up, however. Someone was knocking on the door.

I opened one eye and strained to look at the clock on my nightstand. It seemed my alarm hadn’t gone off, it had to be Effie knocking to see where I was.

“Oh, shoot,” I muttered. I yelled, “Coming down now!” as I rushed around getting dressed. The island was humid almost all of the time. Thankfully the house had air conditioning, but as soon as I stepped outside, I would be hit with the heat. I put on the shorts that had almost become my