Dead & Breakfast by Kat Hillis, Rosiee Thor 
Published by Berkley on October 14, 2025
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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The new vampires in town are sinking their teeth into solving a murder…
Married odd couple Arthur and Sal are totally normal. They wear sunscreen, not because the sun can kill them, but because even the undead need a skincare regimen. They eat garlic whenever they want, though it gives Sal indigestion. They can talk to creatures of the night, but only the raccoons that rifle through their garbage. Really, they don’t bite… except into delicious baked goods.
Ready to settle down and stay out of trouble, the two have opened a bed & breakfast in the idyllic, if not-so-paranormal-friendly, town of Trident Falls, Oregon. But trouble finds them when the mayor is discovered dead in their begonias with two puncture wounds in his neck. With the help of a werewolf barista, the elven town coroner, and a very human city manager, Arthur and Sal will need to prove they aren’t literally out for blood by catching a killer…
A cozy mystery which didn’t make more of the paranormal world building.
Salvatore and Arthur are a gay vampire couple who purchased the Iris Inn, a Bed & Breakfast in the quiet Town of Trident Falls, Oregon, in an attempt to set down roots. Arthur has lovely memories of the town from his childhood. They finally have their first guest and things are starting to look up for them. Then the Mayor’s dead body is found dumped in their garden crushing their freshly planted begonias. Being a dump site is bad enough for business but when there are two puncture marks in the side his neck, everyone–especially the witless Sheriff–is looking at the only two vampires in town.
Admittedly not every one has been welcoming Sal and Arthur with open arms but killing the Mayor to frame them for murder seems a bit over-the-top. The Sheriff has determined Sal is guilty, even before the autopsy has been performed, and has called the PFI (Paranormal Federal Investigation) to come pick him up, so it is up to Arthur to figure out the killer before they arrive on Monday to take Sal away.
THOUGHTS:
Let’s start with the positive. The story only introduced a few characters so obviously our list of suspects is small, but they did a good job keeping us guessing as to who the killer was regardless.
I liked Arthur’s stoic nature in direct opposition to Sal’s gregarious–quite frankly, Drama-Queen personality. The authors also have Sal, who was older by centuries, to be more modern and technologically advanced of the two. Maybe his centuries of having to conform left him more willing to keep up. Also needing to adapt to hide in plain sight before vampires were known and accepted. Arthur and Sal complemented each other well as a couple. Sal was funny with his stories of his antics over the centuries and even Arthur wasn’t certain which ones might be real and which he kept making up. He also kept changing his dress style, hopping around the centuries each day. Whether he is wearing belle bottoms and tie dyed or a ruffled shirts and a codpiece, Sal was entertaining.
But in this story, they really didn’t need to be vampires. First, all of the myths are wrong. They go out in the sun (just weaker). They can eat garlic (but Sal doesn’t like it). Holy water isn’t a problem (Arthur is Jewish). They can eat regular food and just add blood to their diet. They don’t have many awesome vampire powers since Arthur is young and Sal’s maker wasn’t very powerful himself. Sal can’t fly but he can hover a little bit. They actually went to bed at a night when vampires are more powerful and full of energy, which didn’t make sense. The only issue in this story is that the Mayor was found with two puncture wounds on his neck and no blood. Of course the Sheriff jumps right on these facts to arrest Sal, never thinking that it was pretty suspicious that a vampire who hid himself for centuries decided to drain a body and dump it on his own front lawn.
Arthur disliked the handsome and only werewolf in Town, Theo, although he had no issue with the one fae, Lore, who was the coroner. We don’t hear about any other paranormal settled in town, and even Arthur says it’s possible there might be another vampire around killing. We know that not everyone is happy about vampires and paranormals in their town and there are a group of teens graffiti-ing the businesses.
This was a good cozy mystery and while the gay, vampire couple makes an interesting choice for our mystery solvers, I don’t think the authors did enough with the paranormal aspect of the story. Arthur and Sal didn’t have any real drawbacks because they were vampires, except stakes. We don’t know much about Theo or Lore and their paranormal selves. We have a scene where Arthur and Sal are trying to sneak up on Theo and he let’s them know with “werewolf hearing,” and that he knew they were there the whole time. So even vampires aren’t aware of something basic like werewolves had great hearing?
I presume this is the beginning of a new series of cozy mysteries. I would like to see the authors add some world-building and lean a little harder into the paranormal aspect of this series and make it more important.
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