Bound By Secrets (The Pages and Paws Mystery Series Book 2) by Poppy Bridgeman

Author:Poppy Bridgeman [Bridgeman, Poppy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perry Wilson Books
Published: 2025-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

15

The Tidehaven Cove Literary Fair had officially concluded at five o’clock, and despite everything that had happened, it had been a surprising success. Browsers had bought books, authors had connected with readers, and the village had proven it could host a proper literary gathering. Tomorrow, volunteers would arrive to dismantle the stalls and pack away the bunting, and over the next few days I’d receive reports from vendors and presenters about sales and feedback. But for now, the green was peaceful, and I was finally allowing myself to feel cautiously proud of what we’d accomplished.

I was washing up the dinner dishes when a knock at the door sent both dogs into their usual greeting committee routine, though their tails suggested this was someone they knew and approved of.

Elliot stood on my doorstep with a bottle of wine and a slightly sheepish expression.

“I hope I’m not intruding,” he said. “I thought you might need some company after the weekend you’ve had. And I brought something that might help us unwind.”

“That’s very thoughtful,” I replied, stepping aside to let him in. “Though I should warn you, Beau’s here too. We’ve been going over some of the manuscript evidence.”

“Ah.” Elliot’s smile flickered only slightly. “Well, perhaps I can contribute something useful for once.”

We settled in the living room, where Beau had commandeered my coffee table and covered it with photocopied pages from Gary’s manuscript. Hardy had claimed his usual spot on the hearth rug, while Austen perched on the window seat, keeping watch over the evening’s activities.

“Any progress?” Elliot asked, pouring wine for all of us.

“Some,” Beau said, looking up from his papers. “I’ve been comparing the original sections with Gary’s additions, and the quality difference is even more striking than I initially thought.”

“How so?”

Beau held up two pages side by side. “This chapter opening has genuine tension and characters who behave like actual human beings. It reads like someone with real publishing experience wrote it.”

He flipped to another section. “But then Gary added this twenty-page conspiracy rant about pharmaceutical companies controlling veterinary medicine to suppress natural healing methods that threaten their profits.”

Elliot nearly choked on his wine. “He wrote what?”

“Apparently the villain’s evil plan involves manipulating pet owners through their veterinarians to create dependency on expensive treatments instead of promoting holistic animal care.” Beau’s expression was perfectly serious. “There’s a particularly detailed section about how flea treatments are actually mind-control devices.”

“Good God,” Elliot said weakly. “No wonder people thought he was completely mad. The man’s paranoia covers a very broad range.”

“The tragic thing is,” Beau continued, “the original story was actually rather good. A solid political thriller about corruption in local government, believable characters, decent pacing. It needed work, probably a thorough edit and some structural revisions, but someone who knew what they were doing wrote that foundation.”

“And then Gary systematically destroyed it,” I added, settling back into my favorite chair with my wine.

“More than destroyed it,” Beau said, shuffling through more pages. “He turned it into a paranoid manifesto. Every time

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