WHAT’S INSIDE THIS PACKAGE
⭐️ Story Premise — high-concept pitch, elevator pitch, and K-Lytics market validation with dual-category positioning (Cozy Animals, Amateur Sleuth) and competitive analysis against three comp titles
⭐️ Complete Codex — full story bible with two main characters, supporting cast of seven, Villa Limona room-by-room and Isola Bellara harbor detail, ten-day chapter-by-chapter timeline, first-person voice system with Cleo’s list-driven wry internal monologue (thinks in inventory language, undercuts herself before anyone else can), closed-door romantic progression with the near-kiss architecture mapped beat by beat, seven-clue fair-play trail with three red herrings tracked stage by stage, and series seeds for three future books
⭐️ Chapter-by-Chapter Outline — 26 chapters + epilogue with emotional beats, word count targets, scene breakdowns, and clue-placement notes for every chapter
⭐️ AI-Ready Chapter Prompts — 27 fresh-chat-ready writing prompts including character voice reminders, continuity-locked clue guidance (specific, planted as atmosphere — never flagged early), and the exact chapter where Biscotto’s pool-house refusal stops being a cat thing and becomes the last piece of evidence
⭐️ Marketing Copy — Amazon listing with categories and keywords, back cover copy, social media posts, newsletter announcement, reader magnet concepts including a prequel scene of Cleo’s first week on the island as an exclusive bonus, and Ideogram cover prompt
⭐️ Market-Matched™ Brief — market snapshot table, six data-backed positioning bullets, comp title differentiation, full 7-keyword KDP strategy, and launch positioning with cover direction and series readthrough strategy
One buyer. One story. Exclusively yours.
A VILLA TO DIE FOR
Cleo Marsh has spent six island summers being the one person no one ever notices — keys to every room, fingerprints on nothing, the villa concierge who keeps the linens pressed and the secrets where they belong.
Then the guest of honor turns up dead in the infinity pool the morning of the biggest gala of the season.
Before she can work out who actually did it, there’s a torn ledger page her cat drags out of the lemon grove with a boat-rental name no one at the harbor recognizes, a seating chart that proves a man lied about who he sat next to at dinner, a toxicology report that turns fifteen minutes of pool-house access into the whole story, a carabinieri officer going through the motions of calling it an accident while his captain quietly points at the most convenient suspect on the list — which is Cleo — and a storm that locks everyone inside the villa overnight with a killer who’s starting to notice she’s asking the wrong questions.
She’s kept other people’s secrets so long she’s started treating her own silence like a virtue. He rebuilt his whole life around a quiet posting on a small island because the last time he trusted his instincts, someone else paid for it. Neither of them can prove a thing without choosing honesty over the habits that have kept them safe.
A closed-door cozy mystery drenched in lemon blossom and Mediterranean sun. The kind of book you read in one sitting and then immediately check whether there’s a second one.
WHY THIS WILL SELL
→ Mystery > Cozy > Animals shows the strongest 18-month rank trend of the four dedicated cozy subcategories — the genre’s own best-performing niche, used by 28 of the current top 100 titles
→ Mystery > Amateur Sleuth carries a 100 sales-to-comp index (Hot Mainstream) with 170 estimated daily sales per top 20 title — the single strongest tracked mystery category
→ Dual-stacking both categories gives legitimate positioning in the genre’s two best-performing niches simultaneously
→ Villa is the second-highest-revenue venue trope tracked at an estimated $156K monthly royalties — paired with an above-average Island location that is nearly absent from the current top 100
→ Inheritance motive (index 55) gives a built-in web of financial suspects without relying on the overused generic “money” or “greed” framing
→ Zero direct competitors for the villa-concierge premise in the current top 100, despite a proven house-sitter-sleuth precedent at bestseller level
TROPES:
• Amateur sleuth with professional access
• Fish out of water
• Fair-play whodunit
• Inheritance-driven murder
• Storm-locked house
• Small-island community
• Slow-burn closed-door romance
• Near-kiss interrupted
• Cat knows before anyone else
• Grieving housekeeper with secrets
• The ledger doesn’t lie
• Second-chance-at-trust romance
HEAT LEVEL: Sweet / Closed Door
Perfect for fans of: Rebecca Tope, Verity Bright, Helena Dixon, and M.C. Beaton