Welcome to Creekwood, New York and the Marnie Reilly Mysteries Series.
At a glance, it’s an Adirondack town where people know your name, your coffee order, your family history, and what you did wrong when you were five-years-old. It has mountain views, old secrets, loyal dogs, complicated friendships, found family, and a habit of turning major
holidays into crime scenes. You’ll find a bevy of quirky characters here.
If you are new to my books, the Marnie Reilly Mysteries are a paranormal mystery thriller series set in the fictional town of Creekwood, New York, somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains. The series follows Marnie Reilly, a psychologist with psychic abilities, as she gets pulled into murder investigations that hit too close to home.
These are psychic mystery thriller books for readers who enjoy atmosphere, emotional stakes, dark secrets, real detective work, and just enough paranormal activity to make you sleep with one eye open.
Who is Marnie Reilly?
Marnie Reilly is a psychologist, a survivor, a loyal friend, a dog lover, and a woman with gifts she did not ask for.
She is clairvoyant, clairaudient, clairsentient, and claircognizant. Let me break that down: she sees, hears, feels, and knows things she sometimes wishes she didn’t.
That makes her useful in a murder investigation, but it also complicates her life.
Marnie is not a fortune-teller in a velvet tent. She doesn’t wave crystals or sage over crime scenes. My main gal is a trained mental health professional who counsels people while dealing with ghosts, trauma, grief, violence, and the darker corners of human behavior.
That is why I often describe her as a psychic psychologist. Her abilities are important for sure, but so is her professional training. She understands people and trauma, and when someone is lying, hiding something, or unraveling under pressure, Marnie notices.
Unfortunately for her, killers notice her right back.
What Genre of Books Are These?
The Marnie Reilly Mysteries sit at the crossroads of mystery, thriller, police procedural, psychological suspense, and the supernatural.
If you enjoy mystery thrillers with ghosts, this series may be for you. The dead do not take over every page, but they are present. Some days they warn. Others they haunt. Sometimes they refuse to be ignored.
If you prefer a small-town mystery thriller with secrets buried under polite smiles and local gossip, Creekwood has you covered. It is a town where everyone knows everyone. That may sound quaint, but imagine living in a community where a body turns up and half the town has a motive.
If you like a supernatural crime thriller where detectives still have to follow evidence, ask questions, read reports, chase suspects, and make sense of human evil, you will feel at home here.
The paranormal does not replace the investigation. It complicates it.
Is This Horror?
Nope.
The Marnie Reilly Mysteries are dark. People die. Secrets rot. Trauma is revealed, and the past does not remain buried.
But these books are not horror. They are psychological paranormal thriller stories with mystery at the center. Fear resonates from both sides of the veil: the ghosts who linger and the living people who are capable of terrible things. With the human variety being more dangerous.
Is This Cozy Mystery?
Also no.
Creekwood has dogs, diners, holidays, friends, humor, and a strong sense of community. You will feel warmth here. You will see loyalty here. And you may even find pie. But you will also discover corpses and the evil humans do.
The Marnie Reilly Mysteries are darker than cozies. They deal with murder, trauma, grief, manipulation, family secrets, and violence. The books have heart, but they are not soft. They are written for readers who want emotional truth with their suspense.
Think less “tea and a missing brooch,” and more “coffee, a body count, jump scares, twisty plots, and diabolical suspects.”
Why the Adirondacks?
The series is rooted in the mood, isolation, and beauty of Northern New York.
Creekwood is fictional, but its bones come from the Adirondacks, the St. Lawrence River Valley, and a region where history surrounds the picturesque countryside.
Why are these books set in the Adirondacks? It’s where I grew up, and it lives in my memories. The mountains, the weather, the forests, the old homes, the cemeteries, the rivers, and the long winter nights all shape the series.
If you like an Adirondack mystery thriller with atmosphere, local texture, and a fictional town that feels like it could be waiting around the next bend in the road, you may feel at home. The signage says, “Welcome to Creekwood.” Cozy, right? But it’s what the locals have graffitied beneath it that should concern you: “Where the holidays are murder!”
Please drive with caution. The road conditions are questionable, and so are the residents.
Why Holidays?
Because holidays create psychological tension before anything bad even happens.
People want holidays to go off without a hitch. After all, they have an emotional investment in it. They plan the meal, decorate the house, invite the relatives, light the candles, make the memories, and honor the dead. Folks will do anything to keep the peace and pretend certain old wounds are not sitting at the table with them.
That’s the stuff that makes a holiday thriller so effective.
A normal day can go sideways, and people bounce back with ease. But when Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th, or Halloween fall apart, it feels personal. Holidays carry expectations. They stir up grief and expose familial fractures. They make lonely people lonelier and angry people impossible.
In the Marnie Reilly Mysteries, the holidays are not just seasonal backdrops. The forthcoming celebrations raise the emotional stakes. They turn private pain into public performances. They force people into the same rooms, around the same tables, under the same traditions, with secrets they struggle to keep buried.
That is why the books work as a holiday murder mystery series. The question is not only, “Who killed this person?” It is also, “What emotional fault line cracked?”
Thanksgiving drops a blizzard and a body. Christmas presents with ghosts, warnings, and a killer. The 4th of July brings heat, secrets, and danger. Halloween unmasks urban legends, missing women, and fear creeping out of the woods.
So, why the holidays? Because people care during those marked events. And when folks are emotionally invested, they risk more, keep secrets, and sometimes kill to stop the truth from coming out.
Do You Need to Read the Books in Order?
I recommend reading the series in order, but no. Backstory is provided, so you won’t feel lost.
Each book has its own central mystery, but Marnie’s personal story, friendships, trauma, enemies, and her relationship with Creekwood grow as the series expands. The emotional stakes build. The danger escalates, and my cast becomes more layered as the series continues.
Here is the reading order:
Divine Guidance (Second Edition) — Marnie Reilly Mysteries Book One
Torn Veil — Marnie Reilly Mysteries Book Two
Fatal Vow — Marnie Reilly Mysteries Book Three
Vacant Grave — Marnie Reilly Mysteries Book Four
Start with Divine Guidance if you want to meet Marnie at the beginning of her published journey.
Meet the Core Crew
Thank goodness, Marnie does not face Creekwood’s darkness alone.
Detective Lieutenant Danny Gregg is steady, protective, stubborn, and committed to justice. He has his own history, his own grief, and his own reasons for taking Creekwood’s crimes to heart.
Detective Sergeant Tom Keller brings humor, loyalty, and sharp instincts to the series. He is often the person who lightens a grim moment, but do not mistake that for weakness. Tom sees more than he lets on.
Then there are the dogs. Tater and Dickens, Marnie’s Border Collies, are not window dressing. They are part of her life, her safety, and the emotional heartbeat of the series. In a town full of secrets, the knuckleheads (as we call them) are the most trustworthy characters.
What Makes My Books Different?
At the center of the series is the tension between intuition and evidence.
Marnie may sense things other people cannot, but she still lives in the real world. Detectives need proof, and that’s hard to balance. The psychic psychologist can provide hints, but Danny and Tom must investigate to discover hard facts—tangible proof, not incorporeal whispers from the shadows.
The paranormal elements add dread, mystery, and emotional depth, but the crimes, motives, and damage are human.
Marnie Reilly Mysteries are female sleuth mystery thriller stories with a psychic edge. The series is also about friendship, survival, loyalty, courage, grief, humor, and the persistent belief that light wins over darkness. Especially during the holidays.
Who Should Read the Marnie Reilly Mysteries?
You may enjoy this series if you like:
🐦⬛Dark, small-town mysteries
🐦⬛Psychic abilities handled with emotional intelligence
🐦⬛Police investigations mixed with paranormal insight
🐦⬛Ghosts, secrets, cemeteries, old houses, and isolated roads
🐦⬛Strong female protagonists with complicated pasts
🐦⬛Loyal dogs and found-family friendships
🐦⬛Holiday settings with a sinister twist
🐦⬛Atmospheric thrillers with heart
If you are looking for a little puzzle where everyone behaves themselves, Creekwood may not be for you.
If you are looking for a town full of secrets, ghosts, danger, humor, grief, courage, and murder? Come on in.
Marnie Reilly has been expecting you.
Start Reading
Begin with Divine Guidance, the first book in the Marnie Reilly Mysteries, and step into Creekwood, New York, where the veil is thin, the dead are restless, and the holidays are murder.
Read the first chapter of Divine Guidance
What a wonderful post, Shari! (And good info to give people who want to market for you.) 😉
I loved your “Why Holidays?” explanation. That makes so much sense, and it’s probably one of the reasons why your books resonate with your fans. The emotional investment is easier because most of us approach the holidays in the ways you shared!
Thank you! I thought I’d answer the question no one ever asks. 😂