The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.
- File Name:the-curse-of-penryth-hall-by-jess-armstrong.epub
- Original Title:The Curse of Penryth Hall
- Creator:Jess Armstrong
- Language:en-US
- Identifier:9781250886026
- Publisher:St. Martin's Publishing Group
- File Size:2.054 MB
Table of Content
- 1. Cover
- 2. Title Page
- 3. Copyright Notice
- 4. Dedication
- 5. Chapter One. An Unwanted Journey
- 6. Chapter Two. The Growing Storm
- 7. Chapter Three. The Pellar
- 8. Chapter Four. A Dreadful Dinner
- 9. Chapter Five. Bad Dreams
- 10. Chapter Six. The Bells of Penryth Hall
- 11. Chapter Seven. The Pellar Returns
- 12. Chapter Eight. Rumors Abound
- 13. Chapter Nine. Promises Made
- 14. Chapter Ten. A Gin-Soaked Subterfuge
- 15. Chapter Eleven. Unlikely Bedfellows
- 16. Chapter Twelve. An Odious Visitor
- 17. Chapter Thirteen. Another Sort of Garden Party
- 18. Chapter Fourteen. Sticks and Stones
- 19. Chapter Fifteen. And Promises Broken
- 20. Chapter Sixteen. A Growing Storm
- 21. Chapter Seventeen. Awful Offal
- 22. Chapter Eighteen. Burglaress
- 23. Chapter Nineteen. Doubts and More Doubts
- 24. Chapter Twenty. A Crisis of Bovine Proportions
- 25. Chapter Twenty-One. Hearth and Home
- 26. Chapter Twenty-Two. Things Both Lost and Found
- 27. Chapter Twenty-Three. Old Doctor, New Clues
- 28. Chapter Twenty-Four. A Wayward Feline
- 29. Chapter Twenty-Five. Visitors in the Night
- 30. Chapter Twenty-Six. A Professional Perspective
- 31. Chapter Twenty-Seven. The White Witch Returns
- 32. Chapter Twenty-Eight. As It Might Have Been
- 33. Chapter Twenty-Nine. Finally a Clue
- 34. Chapter Thirty. An Unlikely Accomplice
- 35. Chapter Thirty-One. Missing Vicars
- 36. Chapter Thirty-Two. Piskie-Led
- 37. Chapter Thirty-Three. Long-Forgotten Secrets
- 38. Chapter Thirty-Four. Godless Men
- 39. Chapter Thirty-Five. The Final Piece
- 40. Chapter Thirty-Six. A Waking Dream
- 41. Chapter Thirty-Seven. The Wraith Revealed
- 42. Chapter Thirty-Eight. Fly Away, Fly Away Home
- 43. Chapter Thirty-Nine. A Separate Sort of Love
- 44. Epilogue
- 45. Acknowledgments
- 46. About the Author
- 47. Newsletter Sign-up
- 48. Contents
- 49. Copyright
Loved this. No spice, but a great gothic mystery!