Kate Hamilton is feeling good about her plans to recreate Asheboro, Maryland as the Victorian town it once was. Even two recent murders aren't enough to discourage her: after she helped to solve them, she put them behind her.
Now comes the time to make real plans, and her first goal is to renovate the Barton Mansion on the outskirts of town. Luckily, it's been maintained in good condition in the century since the wealthy Henry Barton lived and died there. But when the contractor gets started, he discovers a staircase that had been walled in years earlier. And of course, given the way Kate's luck has been going, there's a body on the stairs.
After the first shock, Kate is relieved when the autopsy reveals that the man had died around 1880. Unfortunately, it also reveals that he had not died a natural death-he had been murdered.
So Kate and Carroll Peterson, who Kate had drafted to sort through Henry Barton's papers, start a hunt to identify the man and why he died at the Barton Mansion. But when a second body is found-this time from the present day-Kate realizes that someone may not be so keen on her digging up the past . . .
Some secrets are too big to stay buried.
A few months ago, Boston expat Maura Donovan was reunited with her mother after more than twenty years of absence. Since then, Maura has been getting accustomed to Irish living, complete with an inherited house and a pub named Sullivan’s. But now, her mother has returned—and she’s brought Maura’s half-sister in tow. To make matters more confusing, a handful of Cork University students are knocking on Maura’s door, asking about a mystical fairy fort that happens to be located on Maura’s piece of land.
The lore indicates that messing with the fort can cause bad luck, and most everyone is telling Maura not to get too involved for fear of its powers, but Maura is curious about her own land, and she definitely doesn’t buy into the superstition. Then one of the students disappears after a day of scoping out the fort on Maura’s property.
Maura treads carefully, asking the folks around town who might have an idea, but no one wants anything to do with these forts. She has to take matters into her own hands—it’s her land, after all. But when she uncovers a decades-old corpse buried in the center of the fort, nothing is for certain.
The New York Times bestselling author of Dead End Street returns with Nell Pratt discovering one of Philadelphia's darker buried secrets . . .
When a summer intern at the Preservation Society discovers an aged document hidden in the binding of an antique book, Society president Nell Pratt is intrigued by the possibilities: is it a valuable historic document or just a useless scrap of paper? When analysis reveals that it's a hand-drawn map of one of Philadelphia's oldest neighborhoods, Nell learns that the area is being excavated for a new real estate development and may hold long-buried secrets from the city's historic heyday.
Determined to get to the bottom of the map's origin and what it might tell her about the mysterious plot of land, Nell will have to contend with a construction company owner who disappears, a former Society board member who's harbored a dark secret her entire life, and a remarkable discovery that may have the dead turning over in their graves . . .
After fifteen years away, Kate Hamilton never expected to end up back in her hometown of Asheboro, Maryland, full time. And she definitely didn't expect to be leading the charge of recreating the town as a Victorian village and tourist attraction. But as unexpected as the circumstances are, Kate is ready to tackle them.
The town, on the other hand, is going to take some convincing. Ever since Henry Barton's shovel factory closed down, it's started to seem like there are more tumbleweeds than tourists rolling down Main Street. Kate's ideas are good, but ambitious-and her friends and neighbors are worried that finding the money for them would push the town even further into debt.
Luckily, Kate and historian Joshua Wainwright may have come up with a solution. The Barton mansion, meant to be the centerpiece of the Victorian village, has proven to be a veritable goldmine of documents about the town's nineteenth-century history, and Kate is convinced the papers hide something of value. When a dead body turns up in the town library-mere hours before the documents were meant to arrive there themselves-Kate begins to worry that the papers spell danger instead of dollars. It seems that someone doesn't want these forgotten secrets coming to light, and they'll do whatever it takes to keep Kate quiet . . .
The New York Times bestselling author of A Late Frost returns with orchard owner Meg Chapin trying to stem the tide of crime . . .
Winter still has a firm stranglehold on the small town of Granford, and newly married orchard owner Meg Chapin is restless to begin her spring pruning and planting, while Seth busies himself with a new project of his own. But their relative peace is shattered when a gunshot breaks the winter silence and they discover the body of a dead woman on their land. What's just as troubling is that the state police have hushed up the murder and are warning Meg not to investigate.
Never one to sit by idly with a killer on the loose, Meg starts digging for clues and probing for answers as discreetly as she can. When the victim turns out to have been an undercover reporter doing a story on the blossoming trade in illegal drugs in the area, Meg's stunned to learn that this very modern crime has come to sleepy Granford. Unwilling to accept that the nasty business has put down roots so close to home-and led to a murder that occurred literally in her own backyard-Meg is determined to nip it in the bud before the town she knows and loves turns rotten . . .
From New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly, Abby Kimball returns with stunning discoveries about her unusual ability to see the dead . . .
Still undecided about a return to her teaching career, Abby Kimball has thrown herself into restoring the grand Victorian she shares with her boyfriend, Ned. She's happy to put thoughts of her strange ability to see the dead on the back burner for a while, but she realizes that won't be so easy when she's faced with two new compelling encounters.
First, a plumber she's hired has a shocking experience with an old tool they find buried in the house's walls, and then the interior life of an autistic boy streams through her mind as if he were speaking. Intrigued by the possibility that those who share her ability are more numerous and considerably more varied than she ever imagined, Abby's forced to reconsider everything she thought she knew about her extraordinary gift.
Inspired to learn more about autism and also the family history of her new plumber, Abby begins to dig deep on both topics and will discover a shocking connection that makes it clear that deeds from the past are reverberating still in the present . . .
Katherine Hamilton's goal in high school was to escape from her dead-end hometown of Asheboro, Maryland. Fifteen years later she's got a degree in hospitality management and a great job at a high-end boutique hotel in Baltimore. Until, that is, the hotel is acquired by a chain, and she's laid off. When Kate's high school best friend calls with a mysterious invitation to come talk with the town leaders of Asheboro, she agrees to make the trip, curious about where this new opportunity might lead.
Once Kate arrives, the town council members reveal that their town is on the verge of going bankrupt, and they've decided that Kate's skills and knowledge make her the perfect person to cure all their ills. The town has used its last available funds to buy the huge Victorian mansion just outside of town, hoping to use it to attract some of the tourists who travel to visit the nearby Civil War battle sites. Kate has less-than-fond memories of the mansion, for personal reasons, but to make matters worse, the only person who has presented a possible alternate plan is Cordelia Walker-Kate's high school nemesis.
But a few days later, while touring the mansion, Kate stumbles over a body-and it's none other than Cordelia.
When the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society discovers it owns some unique real estate, a deadly plot unfolds . . . Society president Nell Pratt believes life is finally going her way. Everything's running smoothly at work, and her love life is thriving. Then some unexpected news rocks her foundation. Two members of a local neighborhood rescue program, Tyrone Blakeney and Cherisse Chapman, inform Nell that her society owns an abandoned row house in a rundown area of Philadelphia and they insist on taking her to see the property before its date with the wrecking ball. But soon after they arrive at the house, Cherisse is fatally shot and Tyrone is badly injured. The police believe it's just random violence in a bad neighborhood, but Nell thinks there's more to it and is determined to find answers before someone else becomes history . . .
Pub owner Maura Donovan hasn't seen her mother for over twenty years, so when she suddenly shows up in Maura's pub, Maura's not sure what to expect. Her mother is trying to find a life for herself back home and has taken up a position working with the new owners of the Crann Mor hotel just outside Skibbereen. That is until her new boss is found dead in the gardens, dumped down the hillside behind the hotel.Now, trying to rekindle the relationship they've lost, Maura must investigate in order to clear her mother's name. It's not so easy though, as long-time residents of County Cork, including the families of her employee Mick, and the family of the deceased hotel owner, have bottled deep dark family secrets not meant to be uncorked. And someone will kill to keep them that way.How far would you go to protect your family? Maura tests the age-old question in Many a Twist, the charming and atmospheric sixth County Cork mystery from New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly.
Nell Pratt, president of the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society, has something to smile about thanks to a generous donation from a major Philadelphia developer who's willing to help update their museum. But renovations have barely begun when a man is struck by a car in front of the building and killed. The victim is a construction worker who found a curious metal object while excavating an old privy in the museum's basement. Nell thinks the death is somehow connected to the Society, and her suspicions are confirmed when an antiques expert reveals a link between the objects from the cellar and a fellow staff member's family. Now Nell must unearth a mystery with ties to the past and the present. Because when someone is willing to kill over scrap metal, there's no telling what they'll do next . . .
Snow is a rarity in Maura Donovan's small village in County Cork, Ireland, so she wasn't sure what to expect when a major snowstorm rolled in around Sullivan's pub. But now she's stranded in a bar full of patrons-and a suspected killer in a long-ago murder.
Maura's been in Ireland less than a year and hasn't heard about the decades-old unsolved crime that took place nearby, let alone the infamous suspect, Diane Caldwell. But the locals have, and they're not happy to be trapped with her. Diane, meanwhile, seeks to set the record straight, asserting her innocence after all this time. And since no one is going anywhere in the storm, Maura encourages Diane to share her side of the story, which she'd never had a chance to do in court.
Over the next few hours, the informal court in Sullivan's reviews the facts and theories about the case-and comes to some surprising conclusions. But is it enough to convince the police to take a new look at an old case?
A clever spin on the classic locked-room mystery, Cruel Winter, the fifth in New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly's series, will delight fans of the Emerald Isle.
Still looking for answers to explain her uncanny ability to see her dead ancestors, Abby shifts her focus to spiritualists, seers, and psychics of all kind. Meeting them with an open mind-and a healthy dose of skepticism-she wants to know if any of them genuinely share her strange experiences or if they're simply conning gullible people. When she ventures into a series of "readings" given by area psychics, she makes a startling connection that defies even her wildest expectations. Unsure of what to make of the encounter, Abby turns to her boyfriend, Ned, and the two enlist the help of a scientist friend with equipment that can map the mind. Hoping to pinpoint where the source of their ability lies, they agree to be subjects in a one-of-a-kind experiment. But when Abby is strapped into the machine, the readings-and their implications-are more shocking than either of them could have anticipated. Faced with the new, improbable connection and the possibility that the experiment has changed her life irrevocably, Abby will be forced to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about her ability-and herself-and answer the daunting question of what she wants next.
