Third Lock Mystery, Book One
The spare on her tagged board is lying next to a body.
Bess Ward cuts keys and opens other people’s doors. She does not leave her tagged spares on mill-office floors.
The Kindle edition is included with Kindle Unlimited.
Helen Bram writes the Third Lock mysteries. The books are about locksmiths, tagged keys, and the doors they open.
The series is set in Third Lock, a fictional mill-and-canal town on the Pike Canal. Bess Ward cuts keys at Ward Lock & Key, a brick storefront one block off the third lock. She hangs every spare on a tagged board. She notices hardware before faces. The building is paid off. The gold letters on the glass say WARD LOCK & KEY. From the sidewalk they read the right way. From inside they read the wrong way.
Each book is one closed murder. The keys can be counted. The case ends in that volume. The books stay with the trade: pins, tags, invoices, and doors she was paid to open. Book 1 is The Spare Key, on Amazon as a Kindle edition, including Kindle Unlimited, and as a paperback.
