Cozy on the Surface, Gothic Underneath: A New Year's Welcome to Murder at the Midsummer Feast

Happy New Year! I'm starting 2026 the most on-brand way possible: with a dead body.

(In fiction. Obviously. I promise no actual murders were committed in the making of this announcement.)

Today—January 1st, 2026—Murder at the Midsummer Feast is officially out in the world. Which means you can now spend your New Year's Day exactly how it should be spent: curled up with tea, a blanket, and a mystery that starts with summer sunshine and ends with secrets bleeding through the floorboards.

I couldn't have planned better timing if I tried. New year, new detective duo, new series. It's almost poetic. Almost like I'm organized and strategic about these things.

Almost.

The Origin Story That Wasn't Supposed to Be the Origin Story

Here's something I haven't told you yet: I didn't start with Book 1.

When Vale & Stone first walked into my imagination—uninvited, unannounced, completely at home—they weren't solving their first case. They were months into their partnership, navigating something much darker, much messier, much more explosive than a midsummer fair gone wrong.

I had this chaotic creative urge to write that later case immediately. To jump into the deep end where the water's murky and the stakes are drowning-level high. Because that's where the really interesting stuff happens, right? When detectives have history, when their methods clash, when the trust between them has been tested and rebuilt and tested again.

But then something strange happened.

The more I thought about Vale & Stone—Cressida Vale with her earnest determination and Miles Stone with his shadowed past and sharper edges—the more I realized they felt fully formed. Like they'd been wandering around Blackvale long before I showed up with my notebook and questionable caffeine habits. Like they had a story that began somewhere quieter, somewhere I hadn't witnessed yet.

They had an origin I needed to discover.

Why Go Back to the Beginning?

I made a decision that felt both inevitable and terrifying: to step backward into their first case together. To find the moment where a crime beat reporter returning home and her childhood friend—a man with deep roots in Blackvale—started becoming partners instead of just two people solving a mystery together.

Every detective duo needs a beginning. Holmes and Watson meeting at Bart's. Poirot and Hastings in that post-war moment. Mulder and Scully in that basement office surrounded by conspiracy theories and dim lighting.

The thing is, first cases don't have to be the biggest, loudest, most explosive investigations. Sometimes the most important cases are the quieter ones. The ones that teach you how to read your partner's tells. The ones where you learn whether you can trust the person standing beside you when everything goes sideways.

Murder at the Midsummer Feast is that case. It's warm and subtle and emotionally layered in ways that the explosive stuff I have planned for later wouldn't have worked without this foundation.

It's their beginning. Which means, in a way, it's ours too.

When Cozy Meets Gothic (And Neither Backs Down)

Let me tell you about the aesthetic that's been living rent-free in my head for three months:

Soft summer light filtering through old windows. Long shadows that stretch across garden paths. Gingham tablecloths covering secrets that are slowly curdling in the heat. Laughter and lemonade and the scent of lilacs, with betrayal humming underneath like a wasp trapped in a jar.

Murder at the Midsummer Feast is cozy on the surface. There's a garden party at a grand estate. There's sunshine and champagne and the promise of celebration. The kind of setting where you expect nothing worse than mild gossip and perhaps some awkward small talk.

And then someone dies.

And suddenly that soft summer light reveals exactly how many shadows it's been casting all along.

Here's what I love about blending cozy and gothic: the cozy façade makes the gothic revelations hit harder. When everything looks safe and charming and wrapped in floral wallpaper, the darkness underneath feels more shocking, more intimate, more real. It's not just a murder mystery—it's a murder mystery that betrays the very comfort it promised you.

It's teatime with poison in the sugar bowl.

It's an embroidered cushion hiding a knife.

It's Blackvale itself: a town that looks like it belongs in a watercolor painting but holds secrets that would make the paint run dark.

An Invitation: Step Into Blackvale With Me

Here's what I want you to know before you pick up Murder at the Midsummer Feast:

This is a story that will make you feel things. Wonder at the beauty of Blackvale's summer gardens. Unease when you realize someone's watching from the windows. Charm when Vale's earnest determination bumps up against Stone's cynical observations. Suspicion when you start noticing how many people had reasons to want the victim dead.

It starts soft—with sunshine and celebration and the promise of a perfect midsummer day.

And then it asks: What happens when perfection cracks?

If you want a mystery that unfolds like a secret being whispered in a sunlit room, this is that story. If you want detectives who are still figuring out how to work together while solving a case that tests everything they think they know about justice, this is that story. If you want a village that feels like a character itself—beautiful and broken and hiding so much beneath its charming surface—this is absolutely that story.

If you want something that starts soft and ends with shadows...

Pull up a chair. Light a candle. Pour yourself something warm.

Blackvale is waiting.

---

And speaking of visiting Blackvale... if you're not already on my newsletter list, you're missing out on Case No. 000: The Haunting at Angelwood Home—the actual origin story where Cressida and Miles first become partners in crime-solving (well, technically community service for liberating shelter dogs, but let's not split hairs).

Picture this: a fog-wrapped former sanatorium in the Blue Ridge mountains, ghost stories involving a stern Victorian nurse, and furniture mysteriously arranging itself into perfect circles overnight. Is it a haunting? A prank?

It's cozy gothic with heart, and it's completely free when you sign up for The Blackvale Dispatch.

You'll get the story instantly, plus updates on new releases, behind-the-scenes chaos, and the occasional existential musing about whether my characters would like me in real life. (Cressida would. Miles would tolerate me.)

---

A Toast to First Cases & New Beginnings

On this first day of 2026, I'm lifting a metaphorical glass (not poisoned, I checked) to Vale & Stone's first case and this series taking its first breath in the world.

To books that are both cozy and gothic, soft and sharp, warm and unsettling.

To detective duos finding their footing.

To readers who are brave enough to step into stories that promise comfort and deliver complexity.

To new years and new mysteries and the slightly chaotic magic of creating something you didn't know you needed until it was already there, fully formed, waiting for you to catch up.

Murder at the Midsummer Feast is out today. The Kindle edition launches January 1, with the wide release arriving later this month.

Welcome to Blackvale. Vale & Stone are waiting.

Try not to touch anything suspicious.

Your Next Steps (Because You Know I Can't End Without Them)

Right now (like, literally today):

• Grab Murder at the Midsummer Feast in ebook or paperback format:

  • Amazon (ebook & paperback)

  • Wide release arriving later this month.

• Settle in with something warm to drink (I recommend tea, but I won't judge if you go straight for wine)

• Let me know when you figure out who did it—no spoilers in the comments, but I love knowing when readers have those "WAIT" moments

This week:

• If you love it (and I really hope you do), leave a review! Reviews are how other readers find books, and they're also how authors remember they're not just shouting into the void

• Share a photo of your copy with #MurderAtMidsummer or tag me—I want to see where Vale & Stone are traveling

• Tell one friend who loves mysteries about Blackvale. Word of mouth is actual magic.

This month:

• Join me here on the blog for behind-the-scenes posts about building Blackvale, the cozy-gothic aesthetic, and what's coming next for Vale & Stone (because there's definitely more coming)

• Sign up for my newsletter if you haven't already—that's where I share first looks at new books, chaotic writing updates, and the occasional tarot reading about fictional murders

So here's my question for you: Are you ready to step into Blackvale? What draws you more—the cozy exterior or the gothic secrets underneath? Drop a comment and let's talk about why we love mysteries that promise safety and deliver something much more interesting.

Happy New Year. Happy Reading. Happy Hunting for Clues.

May your tea be hot, your mysteries be twisty, and your murder victims be entirely fictional.

— J.P. White