Picking Up the Pieces

By

J.B. Abbott
A dedicated group of jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts must put their problem-solving skills to the test when one of their own is murdered, for fans of Kate Young and Richard Osman.
Picking Up the Pieces

By

J.B. Abbott

A dedicated group of jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts must put their problem-solving skills to the test when one of their own is murdered, for fans of Kate Young and Richard Osman.

After her mother’s passing, Katie Chambers returns to Cedar Bay, a serene enclave nestled in the southwest corner of Washington State’s Whidbey Island to support her newly widowed father, Jim Chambers. Stepping into her mother’s footsteps, Katie takes on the role of graphic designer at Cedar Bay Puzzles. With the help of her father, she resurrects her mom’s cherished initiative, the South Island Jigsaw crew, a group of puzzle enthusiasts who gather weekly at the library to test and tackle the latest Cedar Bay Puzzles creations. But when a member of their club is murdered and Jim is the last person to see her alive, resulting in his arrest, Katie and the rest of the gang must use all of their resources to obtain justice for both.

To prove her father’s innocence, Katie reaches out to Connor Crozier, a firefighter and her former flame who shattered her heart seven years ago. With problems piling up at work and a competitor outright accusing CBP of stealing his designs, it is up to Katie to puzzle out the mystery before it’s too late.

Perfect for fans of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers and The Marlow Murder Club, this charming and fun mystery will have readers puzzling over the mystery until the last page.

About the Author

Brian Tracey has been a rocket scientist, a hockey player and a musician. Sometimes on the same day. He’s also a business development executive who somehow got a CD of his original music aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the program’s final mission. A past chairman of DFWCon and long-serving officer of the DFW Writers’ Workshop, he’s an active ITW member. His short fiction has appeared in Suspense Magazine. His debut mystery, Picking Up the Pieces, was published by Crooked Lane Books in 2025, co-written with Jeff Ayers as J.B. Abbott. He lives in Texas with his wife, two children, two cats and a yard full of rabbits.

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