The Tattered Cover

• Author: Ellery Adams
• Genre: Cozy Mystery
• Publication Date: October 28, 2025
• Publisher: Kensington Cozies
• Series: Secret, Book, and Scone Society #8

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Cozies for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was a dark, rainy night at Nora Pennington’s Miracle Books when a mysterious death brings the Secret, Book, and Scone Society into the Halloween season on the trail of a murderer . . .

As the residents of Miracle Springs, North Carolina, select their costumes, plan parties, and get excited for a night of tricks or treats, Nora joins in on the festivities by hosting medium memoirist Lara Luz at the bookstore. Charismatic and compelling, Lara mesmerizes the audience with her life story. Struck by a bolt of lightning as a child, she was pronounced dead only to be resurrected with the ability to connect with those on the other side.

Lara performs a reading for a select group of bookstore patrons when the encroaching storm knocks out the power. In the sudden darkness, howling cold winds intensify, and Lara clutches her heart, collapsing dead without warning. But Nora doesn’t believe she died of natural causes. Not one member of the psychic’s reading group—which includes the town’s widower pharmacist, an urgent care nurse, a mystery author, and even truculent Deputy Hollowell—were admirers of Lara.

Nora confirms this when she stumbles upon Lara’s journal in the aftermath of her death. For within its leathery bound pages are the medium and her clients’ deepest and darkest secrets, written in code. Now, Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone Society must sift through the suspects and their motives to uncover which one of them is a killer before he or she is tempted to strike again . . .

I stumbled on this cozy mystery series, and absolutely fell in love with all of it—the characters, the setting, the murders, and how Adams writes. Although I missed the previous book in the series, I didn’t even realize until I started reading and noticed a couple of references to events from book 7, so now I get another chance to read a new-to-me book in the series without having to wait a year, which sounds like a win to me.

Confession: I am a total sucker for good series. I will nearly always choose a series over a standalone book, especially in the cozy mystery genre. And the Secret, Book, and Scone Society has become one of my favorites for a few different reasons. First, it’s well written, but another really important factor is that the books don’t become formulaic or too over-the-top. Also, creating a cast of characters that I want to return to again and again is vital to my enjoyment of the series.

Miracle Springs, North Carolina sounds like an incredible place, if only it was real. I love Nora’s character, not in spite of, but because of her flaws. First of all, Nora and her friends are middle-aged, making this feel much more relatable for me than reading cozies about younger protagonists. Life doesn’t stop at 40, and this book certainly shows that. Nora was involved in a fiery car crash in the past, and she has visible burn scars on her face and the tip of her pinkie is missing, yet she’s found a warm and accepting community … if you don’t mind the yearly murders, I guess?

There was some important action that happens in book 7, but it wasn’t hard to get caught up as I went because of my familiarity with the series. Each of the characters has something going on in this book, and this is one club I would love to join. The way that the characters all interact with each other reminds me of the supportive female friendships I’ve maintained in my own life—these women all work to lift the others up, and be a real friend, even as men might come into and out of their lives. Sheldon, the newest addition, is a character that I adore, and for some reason, the way he is narrated in the audiobooks gave me Cleo vibes from Inheritance by Nora Roberts. He’s funny, witty, gay, charming, and chronically ill, and the representation is outstanding. The sheriff, Grant McCabe has become Nora’s boyfriend, and I couldn’t help but love that he is a loud and proud cat dad, which I didn’t initially picture for this small town boy in blue.

Adams is brilliant in setting this series in a town with hot springs and a healing aura, and having Nora own a bookshop. Nora doesn’t call herself a bookseller, she’s a bibliotherapist, and that sounds like the perfect job to me. Again, minus the murders. Miracle Springs is not only a tourist destination, but it’s also a stop of the Appalachian Trail, so there are always people coming in and out of the town. This ensures that the stories feel believable and avoids becoming boring and repetitive. 

Nora had decided to host an event for spooky season, having a psychic medium who recently published a memoir come to the shop to do some readings for a small group of patrons. A storm blows in during her event, knocking the power out and in the midst of all this chaos, the psychic clutches her heart and proceeds to die, right in Nora’s book shop. Although it seems like a natural death, Nora isn’t convinced, and works with Grant and the rest of the society to figure things out. 

There’s good representation in this book. Sheldon is proudly Cuban-American, and absolutely nails the witty banter with literally everyone who crosses his path. He fits in as the lone man in the group, and practically oozes charisma. However, like many of us in the chronically ill/chronic pain category, he tends to push himself harder than he can handle on days when he’s having a flare. Luckily, the little found family he has stumbled into keep an eye out for him, and when he seems to be in pain or his joints swell up, they step in with accommodations that still allow him to preserve his dignity. That is something that really meant a lot to me to see in a book, as a disabled reader. Nora also sustains a concussion during the story, and it was really informative to see how badly she was affected and how long her symptoms lingered.

With all of the visitors to Miracle Springs, there are plenty of red herrings to follow, and it wasn’t easy to pick out the true culprit. It wound up being someone I didn’t expect at all. However, I was really disappointed by the fact that the author blatantly got something wrong about Narcan in the book. Readers are told that ingesting Narcan can be dangerous and/or life-threatening if someone doesn’t have opioids in their system. Before I became disabled, I worked in the mental health and substance use field, and learned extensively about Narcan during in-service trainings yearly. The first and most important thing we were taught about this drug (naloxone) during trainings, is that it should be administered to any individual who appears to be overdosing—it can save someone’s life if they’ve overdosed on opioids, but if they have no opioids in their system, it won’t have any effect at all provided they aren’t allergic to it. It was disappointing to see this lifesaving drug misrepresented in the story, since a basic google search could have offered up this information. 

Overall, this was a fantastic read, and I was engrossed the entire time. One of my favorite things about reading a series is that each time I read a new book it feels like visiting old friends, and it makes me excited to read any book in the series, even if I’ve read it before. Adams works really hard to destigmatize visible burns, an amputation, substance use, survivors of domestic violence, and chronic illness, creating a validating reading experience for readers who have these issues or know someone who has. She also demonstrates an outstanding understanding of the grief process, and how her characters experience their grief, making it feel so realistic. I did take the half star off for the poor research and representation of Narcan, which has saved so many lives from opioid overdose, including my own. Aside from that, this series is just as fascinating and engaging as it was in the first book—maybe more, since now I’ve known these characters for years and feel like they have become friends, so I’m even more interested in what goes on in their lives. If you like cozies, this is a series not to miss.

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Audible memberships are on sale now! You can sign up for a discounted membership here, and if you do, I highly recommend this series on audiobook.