Spotlight on Dead & Breakfast

From the publisher:

Authors Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor make their Berkley debut with DEAD & BREAKFAST (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; on sale October 14, 2025), a hilarious breakout paranormal mystery perfect for fans of Auralee Wallace, Jenna Levine and Jesse Q. Sutanto. Gilmore Girls meets What We Do in the Shadows in this delightfully cozy next gen mystery following two vampire husbands who are embroiled in a murder scandal when the town’s mayor is found dead in the garden of their quaint bed & breakfast.

Trying to convince their small town’s paranormal-averse residents to patron their B&B is already a pain in the neck, but when one of them is implicated in the mayor’s death, Arthur and Sal must sink their teeth into solving a murder. Along the way, they enlist the help of a werewolf barista, the elven town coroner, and a very human city manager, delivering a paranormal romp with plenty of humor and heart.

This delightful small-town mystery is sure to appeal to the inner child in all of us that wishes we could climb into the world of Halloweentown. Readers will be charmed by the steadfast and loving bond between Sal and Arthur and the strong themes of found family and acceptance.

More About the Book:

In DEAD & BREAKFAST, all Arthur wants is to settle into a quiet afterlife, while his husband Salvatore seems to be made for the spotlight. They’ve compromised by becoming the new proprietors of a bed & breakfast in the idyllic, if not-so-paranormal-friendly, town of Trident Falls, Oregon. Hoping to make a good impression on their new neighbors, Arthur and Sal are thrilled when they receive their first customer—but slightly less thrilled when the mayor’s body is discovered in their begonias with what look suspiciously like fang bites on his neck. 

Ever the pragmatist and determined to prove their innocence, Arthur begins his own amateur investigation. But when a new victim is attacked, Arthur and Sal will have to race to prove they aren’t literally out for blood…unless it was ethically sourced, of course!

About the Authors

Kat Hillis is an author of queer speculative fiction full of silly jokes and twisty plots. A southerner now living in Alabama, she’s a lifelong fan of vampires, murder, and puns. When she’s not writing or reading, she’s gaming, drawing, or making handcrafted soaps.

Rosiee Thor began their career as a storyteller by demanding to tell their mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. Now, they write stories for all ages, including young adult novels Tarnished Are The Stars and Fire Becomes Her, the picture book The Meaning of Pride, and tie-in novels for franchises like Life is Strange and Firefly. They live in Oregon with two cats, a dog, and an abundance of plants.

How it starts:

With thanks to the publisher:

Chapter 1

The lobby of the Iris Inn was dead, but, then, so were its owners. Arthur sat rigid at the front desk, eyes trained on the entrance, waiting. He didn’t strictly mind the quiet of an empty house-all the better to hear his own thoughts-but it had been quiet for so very long. Though time’s significance was beginning to slip through Arthur’s immortal fingers, it had not yet lost all meaning. So, when the front door of the old refurbished grange hall creaked open, he was glad for the interruption. A guest. At last.

The cheerful brunette had only one suitcase. A carry-on. Gray. The woman wouldn’t be staying in Trident Falls more than a night or two, by Arthur’s estimation. He wrote as much on the fluorescent pink Post-it note pressed against the oak paneling of the front desk.

“Welcome to the Iris Inn. Do you have a reservation?” She didn’t, but Arthur liked to ask all the same. It granted their little establishment an air of importance it hadn’t otherwise earned.

The woman smoothed her pressed blue blazer as she approached the counter. She wore sensible flats and an ivory satin blouse that played nicely against her medium-brown skin, and her hair was cropped and worn natural to frame her round face in tiny curls. Not exactly the rumpled and travel-worn type of guest he imagined would be the Iris Inn’s usual customer-if their bed-and-breakfast ever became successful enough to have customers, plural.

“Oh no. I’m sorry. I didn’t think to call ahead.” The wheels of her suitcase clicked along the hardwood floor as she approached the desk. “Mr. Roth seemed sure you’d have room for me.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow at the mention of Trident Falls’ inept excuse for a mayor and bent his head to check his nonexistent calendar for nonexistent bookings.

The suitcase squeaked to a halt as the woman compressed the handle.

Arthur turned his attention to the sticky note where, under the word suitcase, he wrote old.

“We should be able to find room for you.” Arthur eyed her bag warily. No one stayed in Trident Falls for long if they could help it, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. He gestured to the stack of tourism brochures on the desk, boldly displaying a fuzzy photo obviously taken in the previous millennium of a smiling family carrying backpacks in front of a fluorescent orange tent. “Perhaps you’d enjoy a day hike to the falls.”

About the Authors

Kat Hillis is an author of queer speculative fiction full of silly jokes and twisty plots. A southerner now living in Alabama, she’s a lifelong fan of vampires, murder, and puns. When she’s not writing or reading, she’s gaming, drawing, or making handcrafted soaps.

Rosiee Thor began their career as a storyteller by demanding to tell their mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. Now, they write stories for all ages, including young adult novels Tarnished Are The Stars and Fire Becomes Her, the picture book The Meaning of Pride, and tie-in novels for franchises like Life is Strange and Firefly. They live in Oregon with two cats, a dog, and an abundance of plants.

My thoughts:

I read many mysteries but had never encountered protagonists like Arthur and Sal or read a paranormal mystery. That said, I very much liked the two who, although vampires, face many issues that anyone might, along with some extra complications. Their wish for a home is something that is easy to relate to. Add to this some murder and mayhem, and those who like this sub-genre will be delighted, I think.

I loved the title of this story. I hope that it is the first in a series.

Many thanks to Berkley Publishing for this title and opportunity.