Book

No Good Deed

Book 1 in The Pelican Reach Mysteries

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by Mel Charles

Ted Whitfield woke at 5:14 every morning, which was when he always woke, which was the problem. A retired mining engineer with a precise mind and too many quiet hours, he had come to Pelican Reach to be comfortable. He had not come to notice things. But Ted noticed things. It was, at this point, essentially involuntary. When Douglas Firth is found dead at the bottom of his villa staircase, the estate manager calls it a tragic accident, and the police agree. Ted looks at the geometry of the staircase and disagrees. Quietly. With a legal pad and a mechanical pencil and the particular stubbornness of a man who has spent forty years making sure the numbers agree. He is not the only one paying attention. Shirley Tanner, retired GP, knows Douglas Firth came to see her three weeks before he died with something he needed to say and left without saying it. Arthur Slade, retired magistrate, knows Douglas Firth from a 2003 fraud investigation that should have ended differently. Three people in a Sunshine Coast retirement village who have each, in their own way, already failed Douglas Firth once. They would rather not do it twice. No Good Deed is the first book in the Pelican Reach Mysteries, a warm, sharp, and quietly funny, cozy mystery set in subtropical Queensland, featuring three retired professionals who are considerably more observant than anyone has accounted for.

Publication date: April 3, 2026