A Murder Most Camp
A Mystery
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected Apr 28, 2026
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Guncle meets Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies in this fun, twisty mystery following a spoiled nepo baby forced to work at a struggling summer camp who stumbles into a real-life murder mystery he has no choice but to solve.
Rustic cabins. Lakefront bonfires. A painfully hot lifeguard. And a murder? Summer has never been this camp.
Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party’s finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn't involve throwing cash at his problems—he’ll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.)
Enter: Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove that he can “do good” alongside his twelve-year-old aunt. (Yes, aunt.) But Mikey isn’t sure he’ll be able to survive the camp’s ramshackle living conditions, let alone the gaggle of preteens who won’t leave his side. And when his campers become obsessed with a local legend set at an abandoned cabin on the grounds, Mikey’s chances of not making it through the summer become dangerously real—because it turns out there’s a murder hidden beneath Camp Lore. And someone there will stop at nothing to keep it that way.
Solving a decade-old cold case will surely be enough “good” for Mikey to earn his inheritance. He just has to stay alive long enough to do it…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Romance author DiDomizio (Nearlywed) pivots to cozies with this charming mystery centered on gay 29-year-old Mikey Hartford IV, heir to the HartMart superstore fortune. Set to receive his inheritance on his 30th birthday, Mikey grows worried when his father demands he return from his latest yachting holiday for an emergency family meeting. There, Mikey's dad reveals that he's added a new condition to his son's trust: Mikey must spend the remaining months of his 20s helping people or forfeit his fortune. As a result, Mikey is dispatched to a rustic summer camp in Upstate New York to work as a special activities coordinator and help his introverted 12-year-old aunt Annabelle—the daughter of his grandfather—come out of her shell. Mikey's only skill is shooting iPhone videos, so Annabelle and her campmates enlist him to help make a documentary about the story of a counselor who mysteriously disappeared years earlier. Their innocent digging soon uncovers evidence of a long-ago murder with repercussions in the present. Buoyant humor and a sweet subplot involving Mikey's romance with a lifeguard add to the fun, even if the mystery itself takes a while to arrive. A sequel would be welcome.