Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery by Nikki Weber
About Campfires & Corpses
Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery
Cozy Mystery/ Cozy Animal Mystery 1st in Series Setting - Maine
Publisher : Independently published (February 24, 2025)
Paperback : 282 pages ISBN-13 : 979-8311619622
Digital ASIN : B0DS6KRK16
When the campground becomes the scene of the crime, will Noelle's peaceful summer go up in flames?
Down on her luck event planner Noelle Cooper is returning to rural Maine to do the one thing she swore she would never do: run her family’s campground. But it’s only for the summer, and the timing couldn’t be better–she’s lost her job and has nowhere to live. She hopes that a change of scenery will be the thing she needs to regroup and reinvent herself.
But Noelle’s plans go up in smoke on her first morning back when she stumbles upon the body of her high school rival. She barely has time to process this before she comes face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend, meets the handsome county sheriff, and is questioned by an intimidating state trooper who gives her the creeps.
While she’s busy dealing with a group of pushy campers who insist that the murder means she must cancel the annual bonfire, Noelle becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. She’s convinced that someone is feeding false information to the police and is determined to clear her name.
With the help of her podcast-obsessed cousin, her anxious rescue beagle, and a few eccentric campers, Noelle compiles a list of other suspects and pokes around to uncover the real killer.
Can Noelle prove her innocence before getting tossed in jail? Or is she playing with fire? Read Campfires & Corpses now to find out.
*** This clean, contemporary cozy mystery is set in a small town with quirky characters and lovable dogs. Cozy mystery fans will enjoy dissecting the suspects’ alibis and following the clues along with Noelle and her gang. ***
Here's what you'll LOVE about this series!
These are just a few of the reasons you'll love Campfires & Corpses:
- The story is set in Maine
- During a summer heatwave
- There's a rescue beagle (and other great dog-themed references)
- It all takes place in a campground that's in a tiny town
- There's a fast-paced, page-turning ending
~AUTHOR GUEST POST~
“Is the character of Corny based on a real dog?”
This is a question that I get asked a lot. Maybe that’s true of all writers who feature pets in their stories, but I also read a lot of this in online comments and book reviews:
“I fell in love with Noelle’s rescue beagle, Corny.”
“The dog on the cover is so cute!”
“Corny, Noelle's rescue beagle, is probably my favorite.”
That last comment (pulled straight from an Amazon review of my new book, Campfires & Corpses) comes as no surprise to me. The book has been out in the world for a couple of months now, and Corny is—hands down—a reader favorite.
To say that this makes me smile is an understatement. Creating Corny the beagle was one of the best parts of writing Campfires & Corpses. As a life-long lover of dogs, I am tickled pink to learn that readers connect with this fictional pup.
And he is mostly fictional. Corny is not based on any one dog; he’s a combination of dogs.
I did have a beagle-mix growing up. His name was Max, and he went camping with us every summer. I have many fond memories of him sniffing every campsite on our walks and basking in the hot July sun.
Beagle Freedom Project advocates for the release of the animals and also for legislation to end animal testing and the practices that come with animal testing. One of those practices is to euthanize the animals once the researchers feel that the animal has outlived its testing usefulness. BFP has proven that these animals can live full, happy lives after the laboratory, and works to save them from being euthanized.
So, when I decided to start writing my Maine Campground Cozy Mystery series, I knew that I wanted to include a beagle, and I really wanted to shed lighton animals who are research survivors. It’s a fine line to walk—cozies are supposed to be feel-good books—but it was really important to me to at least try.
Corny—like a lot of beagles who are born and bred in a research facility—is a pure-bred beagle who lived in an indoor cage twenty-four hours per day. He’s like a puppy in some ways, even though he’s three years old. He didn’t grow up playing with toys or getting loving pets. He also didn’t encounter many people or other dogs.
For these reasons, Corny is timid and has some anxiety. In Campfires & Corpses, you find Corny hiding in corners and being choosey about the people he approaches. By the end of the book, he has started to come out of his shell, but still has a long road ahead of him.
That long road is by design. I wanted to stay true to the slow, real-life experiences of animals who come from such traumatic backgrounds. I have watched dozens of videos online that show research beagles taking months to learn how to simply play or roll in the grass. Some can never walk down a sidewalk in public due to their high anxiety.
I think it’s this vulnerability that my readers especially love. And it came easily to me when writing Corny into scenes. I could imagine how Corny would react when someone started shouting or banging on a door.
But don’t get me wrong: Corny is also learning to enjoy the finer points of beagle life—mostly sleep and food. He groans and sighs with displeasure when his sleep is interrupted, and he learns quickly that humans drop crumbs (all beagles—even those from a laboratory—have a propensity towards food). These are very typical beagle behaviors that I wanted him to have.
Corny will continue to be a major side character in the rest of the Maine Campground Cozy Mystery series. He gets a lot of time on the pages in the next book, Whoopie Pies & Alibis. And just as his owner, Noelle, will grow and develop throughout the series, so will Corny.
If you’re interested in learning more about Corny and Noelle—how they met, and where the name Corny (short for Cornflake) comes from—I recommend reading my short story called Freedom & Fosters: A Beagle Rescue Short Story.
If you want to learn more about Beagle Freedom Project, you can visit their website at https://bfp.org/
About Nikki Weber
Nikki Weber was born and raised in Maine, and spent her childhood summers camping with her family and their beagle. She loves to read, listen to podcasts, travel, and play tennis. Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery is her first book, and there are many more in the pipeline.
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