ARC Review: Murder at Cottonwood Creek by Clara McKenna

Murder at Cottonwood Creek
Author: Clara McKenna 
Series: Stella and Lyndy Mystery (Book 7)
Publication: Kensington (November 25, 2025)

Description: Far from England and their beloved Morrington Hall, Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst and his American wife, heiress and equestrian Stella Kendrick—now Lady Lyndhurst—find fossils and murder in Montana . . .

Led by his passion for paleontology, Lyndy’s father, Lord Atherly, has traveled all the way to Montana, to explore the fossil-rich horse ranch owned by Stella’s mother, Katherine, and her second husband, Ned Smith. Urged by Lady Atherly to look after her husband, Stella and Lyndy follow in his wake. Stella is excited to be reunited with her mother, and Lyndy is eager to experience the real “Wild West.” Both are equally thrilled to participate in a fossil dig.

But when a local man who was guarding the dig site overnight is found the next morning dead in a creek bed, the couple fear his death may not have been an accident—especially when things get wilder still. The paleontologist on the dig has his notebook stolen, several fossil bones disappear, and a second body is found in the research tent.

No one is above suspicion—a rival paleontologist up to some skullduggery, members of their own crew, even Lord Atherly himself. Stella and Lyndy must keep digging to unearth the clues that will expose a killer in their midst—before more bones must be buried . . .

My Thoughts: Stella and Lyndy have traveled to Montana to visit Stella's mother and to reconnect with Lord Atherly who is hunting for fossils on the horse ranch owned by Katherine and her husband Ned Smith. 

Lyndy, who is fan of dime novels, is eager to see cowboys and buffalo and is a little disappointed that those days are gone. But he makes do by taking part in ranch activities and his father's fossil dig. 

There are problems. The local man who was guarding the site at nights and working as an assistant by day is found dead. The death looks suspicious to Stella and the local sheriff, but the coroner who is the local banker convinces the inquest board that it was an accident. 

When a younger paleontologist also dies in a suspicious way, Stella is convinced that he was also murdered. Determining who caused his death uncovers a variety of suspects. A reporter eager (or desperate) to send fascinating stories back East for his paper and an unscrupulous rival paleontologist lead the field of suspects. But there is also a man running a scam of selling his horses and then claiming they were stolen who could also be in the mix. 

This episode of the Stella and Lyndy mysteries is filled with danger and action, but they find their way to the solution of the mystery in this mystery set in 1906 Montana.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.