Some places feel different the moment you arrive.
Not because they are larger than life.
Not because they promise adventure.
But because they feel like stepping into another world for a little while.
The Timber Hollows Renaissance Festival had always been like that.
For two weeks every summer, the pine forest trails outside town transformed into something halfway between history, theater, and controlled chaos. Merchants filled the pathways with music and candlelight. Performers wandered the grounds in elaborate costumes. Knights fought for cheering crowds while tavern singers traded jokes and songs late into the evening beneath strings of lanterns hanging through the trees.
People came looking for magic.
Most years, they found it.
Ryan Mooney never expected the festival to change his life.
Again.
After surviving two murder investigations in less than a year, Ryan had hoped for something simpler this summer. Good coffee. Long evenings. Festival food. Time spent with people he cared about.
Especially Cody Barrett.
Cody was staying at Ryan’s Victorian house while helping manage the festival’s temporary internet systems, and somewhere between late-night conversations, shared breakfasts, and preparing for opening weekend, something between them had begun quietly changing.
Ryan just hadn’t fully admitted it yet.
Then opening day arrived.
Along with performers, secrets, old insecurities, and a murder hidden inside a staged act witnessed by hundreds of people.
When a beloved member of the Queen’s Court dies during the festival’s famous Human Chess Match, suspicion spreads quickly through the cast and crew. Rumors spiral. Relationships fracture. And Ryan and Cody once again find themselves pulled into an investigation that reveals how dangerous assumptions can become when people confuse performance with truth.
Because behind every costume is a person.
Behind every role is a secret.
And sometimes the most dangerous lies are the ones people tell themselves.
Welcome back to Timber Hollows.
Available May 25, 2026