Third Lock mysteries · Book 1
The Spare Key
The spare on her tagged board is lying next to a body.
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Bess Ward cuts keys and opens other people’s doors. She does not leave her tagged spares on mill-office floors.
In Third Lock, a Great Lakes canal town that still smells of oil and wet wood, the mill pay-office is found locked from the inside. Ray Deller, the museum director, is dead. Beside him is the spare Bess hung Tuesday at 4:20, after she filed that cylinder herself.
Only three keys should exist. One is in the lock. One is Bess’s spare, which is not on the board. The third is unaccounted for.
Chief Rourke would like the storefront to be the answer. Deputy Dan Holt would like a door that makes sense.
The Spare Key is Book 1 of the Third Lock mysteries: a clean, closed-case cozy about keys, copies, and a locksmith who did the job.
Three lines from Chapter 1
“Hands tell you if a person has been working.”The Spare Key, Chapter 1
“I name them the way other people name cousins because a cousin will lie to you and a tag won't.”The Spare Key, Chapter 1
“From the sidewalk they read the right way. From inside they read the wrong way, and that's how you know you are the person with the keys.”The Spare Key, Chapter 1
Formats
Kindle ebook, including Kindle Unlimited (ASIN B0HJW1PPTL). Paperback (ASIN B0HJYK8T2K, ISBN 979-8995176664). On sale since 15 September 2026.
Read a free Third Lock short
A locksmith hangs a spare until the customer comes back. In The Returned Spare, Bess Ward hangs MAIL — 18, and on Friday the hook is empty again. Join Helen's reader list and it comes straight to your inbox.
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