Welcome to Willowcombe

Tucked into a crescent of chalk cliffs above a small Dorset harbour, Willowcombe is the kind of village where the bakery opens before dawn, the church clock runs four minutes fast, and everyone knows everyone's business.

Almost everyone.

Every week, a new episode of The Cassandra Blake Mysteries drops right here — cosy crime fiction set in one of England's most stubbornly beautiful corners, where secrets travel faster than the tide and the lemon tarts are considerably more dangerous than they look.

Cassandra Blake is a former investigative journalist who left London eight years ago, bought a Georgian terrace on Harbour Lane, and opened a bakery. She never meant to solve murders. She's rather good at it.

Pull up a chair. The sourdough's just out.

New episodes every Monday.
Free readers receive each episode one week after subscribers.
Subscribers get episodes early, plus weekly recipe cards from Blake's Bakery, Cassandra's own case notes, and The Willowcombe Bell — the village's weekly newspaper, where the real gossip lives.

Start reading. Episode 1 is free.

TIER 1 - Free Follower

The Village Green

The sage-green door is always open.

Follow Welcome to Willowcombe for free and join Cassandra Blake every Monday as she navigates murder, gossip, lemon tarts, and the particular stubbornness of a small English village that would very much prefer its secrets to stay secret.

Free followers receive each new episode one week after subscribers — ten episodes per season, one mystery per season, one village that will get under your skin considerably faster than you expect.

No payment. No commitment. Just pull up a chair.

Start with Episode 1.

It's free and it's waiting.

TIER 2 - $5/month

A Table at Blake's Bakery

There's a table by the window with your name on it.

At Blake's Bakery, the regulars arrive early. They get the sourdough while it's still warm, the best seat in the house, and the news before it's made its way round the harbour.

A Table at Blake's Bakery gives you exactly that.

Every Monday morning — a full week before free readers — your new episode of the Cassandra Blake Mysteries arrives. Alongside it: a beautifully designed recipe card PDF for that week's bake, pulled directly from the episode and written in Cassandra's voice. And Cassandra's case notes — pages from her old reporter's notebook, showing exactly what she's observed, who she's questioned, and what she hasn't yet told Inspector Hughes.

The notes occasionally contain details that don't appear in the episode itself. Read carefully.

Includes:

✦ New episode every Monday, one week early
✦ Weekly recipe card PDF from Blake's Bakery
✦ Cassandra's case notes from her reporter's notebook
✦ Full Season 1 back catalogue, available immediately on joining
✦ Cancel any time

TIER 3 - $10/month

A Key to Willowcombe Dorset

Some people visit Willowcombe. Others belong here.

A Key to Willowcombe is for readers who want the whole village — the mystery, the kitchen, the notebook, and the newspaper that ties it all together.

Every week you receive everything in the Bakery tier — early episode, recipe card, case notes — plus the Willowcombe Gazette, the village's weekly PDF newspaper. The Gazette covers the events that form the backdrop to the Cassandra Blake Mysteries: the Parish Council meetings, the harbour notices, the Charity Bake Showcase results, the letters from residents who may or may not be entirely truthful about their whereabouts last Saturday evening.

Read the Gazette alongside the episodes and you will notice things other readers won't. A name in a committee report that appears in the story two weeks later. An advertisement placed by someone who shouldn't need to advertise. A letter to the editor that raises more questions than it answers.

The Gazette is written as a living document of Willowcombe — part bonus content, part puzzle, part love letter to a village that exists entirely in fiction and somehow feels completely real.

You'll also be first to hear about Season 2, new characters, and anything else coming to Willowcombe before the rest of the village finds out.

Includes everything in A Table at Blake's Bakery, plus:

✦ Weekly Willowcombe Gazette PDF newspaper
✦ First access to Season 2 announcements and new projects
✦ Occasional exclusive extras — deleted scenes, character letters, village ephemera
✦ The satisfaction of knowing considerably more than Inspector Hughes
✦ Cancel any time

You're looking at Willowcombe

The chalk cliffs. The harbour. The bakery on the corner with the sage-green door that opens at half past six every morning, because good sourdough doesn't wait and neither does Cassandra Blake.

She came here eight years ago from London — former investigative journalist, reluctant exile, surprisingly good baker. She didn't plan on solving murders. Willowcombe had other ideas.

The Lemon Tart Affair is Season One of the Cassandra Blake Mystery Series — ten weekly episodes of cosy crime fiction set in one of Dorset's most beautiful and least law-abiding villages. Each episode arrives every Monday. Each one ends with a recipe. Each season follows one complete mystery from the first body to the last confession.

The chalkboard outside Blake's Bakery says it best:

When life gives you lemons — check who baked the tart.

Episode 1 is free. No sign-up required. Just pull up a chair.

Subscribers receive every episode a full week early, plus Cassandra's case notes, weekly recipe cards from Blake's Bakery, and The Willowcombe Bell — the village newspaper, where the gossip is always accurate and occasionally dangerous.

The sourdough's just out. Come in.

Every village has an official story. And then there's what actually happened

The Willowcombe Gazette is Willowcombe's weekly newspaper — established, respectable, and reliably two days behind the real gossip. It covers the Charity Bake Showcase, the Parish Council's ongoing disputes, the harbour tides, and the letters to the editor that occasionally require legal review.

What it doesn't always cover is everything Cassandra Blake notices.

Published every week exclusively for subscribers, the Gazette is more than bonus content — it's a living document of Willowcombe itself. The village events mentioned in the mystery episodes appear here in print. The characters you meet on Harbour Lane write letters to the editor. The stories between the stories live in these pages.

Read the Gazette alongside the Cassandra Blake Mysteries and you'll notice things the casual reader won't. A name in a committee report. An advertisement placed by someone who shouldn't need to advertise. A letter from a resident who, by the time you read it, may already be a suspect.

The Willowcombe Gazette. Our village. Our voice. Our community.

Delivered every week to subscribers of A Key to Willowcombe.

Cassandra Blake bakes the way she investigates — methodically, honestly, and with considerably more attention to detail than the situation strictly requires. Every episode of the Cassandra Blake Mysteries closes with a recipe from Blake's Bakery: the actual bake from that week's story, with Cassandra's own notes on why it matters.

Not just ingredients and method. Context. The Blackberry and Bay Cream Tarts from Episode 1 come with a closing line that tells you something about Eleanor Carraway that the investigation hasn't yet confirmed. The Damson and Almond Cake from Episode 2 is made the morning after a wake, because Cassandra bakes when she's thinking, and she has a great deal to think about.

Read the recipe. Make the recipe. Then go back and read the episode again — you'll notice something you didn't the first time.

Recipe cards from Blake's Bakery are delivered every week to subscribers as beautifully designed, print-ready PDFs. Each one is tied to that week's episode, stamped with the Blake's Bakery seal, and written in the voice of the series.

Baked fresh on Harbour Lane. Every Monday, without fail.

She Writes Everything Down. Not All of It Makes It Into the Episode.

Cassandra Blake was a journalist for twelve years. Old habits. Every week, alongside the episode, subscribers receive pages from Cassandra's reporter's notebook — her observations, her questions, her suspect list, and the things she's noticed that she hasn't yet told Inspector Hughes.

The case notes occasionally contain details that don't appear in the episode itself. Read carefully.

"Don't let sympathy blind me. Look for facts. Always."
— Cassandra Blake's notebook, Episode 1

Delivered weekly as a PDF. Included in A Table at Blake's Bakery and A Key to Willowcombe.