Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery

Deep in the forest, past the millpond and down the winding lane, lies Shady Hollow. It is a village like any other -- a coffee shop, a newspaper office, a bookshop, a post office -- except that every resident is an animal. Bears police the streets, owls consult on matters of law, ravens run the bookshop, and a quick-witted fox named Vera Vulpes has just arrived to take up the reporter's desk at the local gazette. Vera is new to Shady Hollow, but she is good at her job: she has an eye for detail, a talent for asking the wrong people the right questions, and a nose -- literally -- for a story. When a misanthropic toad named Otto Sumpf is found floating face-down in the millpond, she knows immediately that this is more than an accident. The chief of police, a large and unhurried black bear, is inclined to disagree. Vera is not deterred. As she starts pulling at the threads of the case, the village's peaceful surface begins to crack. Old money, old grudges, hidden debts, and long-kept secrets start surfacing -- and someone decides that Vera has asked one too many questions. Solving the murder will take all of her cunning, and possibly cost her more than she bargained for. Shady Hollow: Un misterioso asesinato is the first book in the beloved series by Juneau Black -- the pen name of American authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel, both long-time booksellers who brought deep literary affection and a mischievous sense of humour to this entirely original concept. Originally self-published in 2015, the series was picked up by Penguin Random House/Vintage Crime in the US, where it earned wide critical praise: The New York Times called it "a mystery of rare and sinister charm," while bestselling author Alan Bradley described it as "Watership Down meets Mickey Spillane." The series now counts multiple instalments, all following Vera Vixen as she navigates new cases in the ever-eventful village of Shady Hollow. What makes the series special is the balance it strikes: the animal cast gives the books warmth, wit, and a sense of gentle unreality, while the plots are genuinely clever and the community dynamics -- gossip, ambition, rivalry, loyalty -- are observed with a sharp and knowing eye. It is cozy crime at its most imaginative.