Phoebe Atwood Taylor: The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (USA 2026)

From the Publisher:
In a small Cape Cod town, a local tavern owner is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. She tells tales of being shot at in the woods and of a trip wire strung up at the top of her staircase. Others in the village think she's just out for some free publicity, as she's always cooking up creative ways to get people into her establishment. But then she's found stabbed to death and her suspicions are confirmed.

Man about town and jack of all trades Asey Mayo is helping out at the tavern when the murder occurs, and he's just the sleuth that such a dastardly case needs. It seems that Eve Prence had no shortage of enemies both at the inn and around the town. Asey Mayo knows people -- especially Cape Codders -- and has both the common sense and the deductive powers necessary to cut through the puzzling case and determine whodunit. But will he succeed before an innocent person takes the fall?

A light, entertaining mystery with a richly described 1930s Cape Cod setting, The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern is an exemplary Golden Age cozy, replete with charming characters and period detail.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern. With an Introduction by Otto Penzler. American Mystery Classics / Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 9781613166598 (June, 2026), 264 p., Hardcover $27.95, Trade $15.95, eBook $9.99.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
"Asey Mayo stories are always full of salty flavor with corking characters. More detective stories should be like those of Phoebe Atwood Taylor." -- New York Herald Tribune

Eve Prence would do anything for publicity, so not everyone believed her when she said someone was trying to kill her. But all doubt vanished when someone put a knife in her. ribs. Eve's famous Cape Cod Tavern was full of guests at the time, so Asey Mayo had plenty of suspects on hand. But this looked like a tough one indeed. There was the matter of a curious pair of antique pistols with daggers hidden between the barrels. There was an all-too- convenient suspect at the scene with a knife in her hand. And the only witness to the murder was a blind boy.

A Foul Play Press Book

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern. An Asey Mayo Mystery. Woodstock, Vt.: Coutryman Press / Foul Play Press, 1986, ISBN: 088150047X, 284 p., $5.95.