2013-10-02
A small town in upstate New York is a haven for Spiritualists and murder. Archaeologist Faye Longchamp Mantooth and her adopted daughter, Amande, have taken a job updating a museum in Rosebower while Faye's husband stays home with their young son. The museum owner is a history buff who never turns away any contribution, no matter how worthless, and has some oddly racist ideas on the worth of some of his collection. The Armistead family, especially talented Spiritualist Tilda, has a great deal of influence in Rosebower, whose citizens are deeply divided over the direction in which the town is moving. An hour after Faye, Amande and Tilda's sister Myrna take part in a séance, the house burns down with Tilda nailed into the tiny séance room, left to die. Among the suspects are Tilda's estranged daughter and her husband, a sexy magician, who have their eyes on Tilda's land. The show they put on every night garners the couple a very nice living, but the husband is plotting with a developer who has plans to turn Rosebower into a sort of Disneyland for believers in ghosts. Also in town is a part-time magician whose work on a book debunking the whole Spiritualist idea may make her the next target for murder. Faye and Amande, who are worried about Myrna, whose health is rapidly and suspiciously deteriorating, are convinced they need to find the killer before there's another murder. The emphasis on the spirit world makes this a bit of a departure from Evans' usual historical and archaeological themes (Plunder, 2012, etc.), but it's certainly a well-plotted and enjoyable mystery.
Faye Longchamp doesn't believe in ghosts. But she's an archaeologist-dead people are her life.
While working in Rosebower, a rural New York town founded by spiritualists, Faye is surrounded by people who talk to the dead on a regular basis. When the most influential spiritualist in town, Tilda Armistead, invites Faye and her project assistant to commune with the dead, she can't say no.
An hour later, her crystal ball shows Faye things no rational mind can explain. Tilda is dead. The evidence says that someone trapped Tilda in a small room, nailing its one door shut before setting her Victorian home on fire. There is no possible way for Tilda to have escaped the blaze, let alone drive for miles before finding Faye and dying in her arms. Yet Tilda did. How? And why?
In this bizarre community, Faye finds herself surrounded by people who had reason to kill Tilda-her estranged daughter who may be the heir to the Armistead fortune; the daughter's husband, a stage magician with a long history of making things vanish; a rich developer with dreams of a ghostly Disneyland project in Rosebower, a project which Tilda fought with her considerable political clout; and the town's holistic doctor whose mysterious herbal potions are consumed by customers far and wide.
As Faye watches the psychics and charlatans jockey for power, and sends a cry for help to her shrewd husband Joe, Tilda's sister, Myrna, is slowly dying. Will Rosebower reveal its secrets to Faye before more goes up in flames?
Faye Longchamp doesn't believe in ghosts. But she's an archaeologist-dead people are her life.
While working in Rosebower, a rural New York town founded by spiritualists, Faye is surrounded by people who talk to the dead on a regular basis. When the most influential spiritualist in town, Tilda Armistead, invites Faye and her project assistant to commune with the dead, she can't say no.
An hour later, her crystal ball shows Faye things no rational mind can explain. Tilda is dead. The evidence says that someone trapped Tilda in a small room, nailing its one door shut before setting her Victorian home on fire. There is no possible way for Tilda to have escaped the blaze, let alone drive for miles before finding Faye and dying in her arms. Yet Tilda did. How? And why?
In this bizarre community, Faye finds herself surrounded by people who had reason to kill Tilda-her estranged daughter who may be the heir to the Armistead fortune; the daughter's husband, a stage magician with a long history of making things vanish; a rich developer with dreams of a ghostly Disneyland project in Rosebower, a project which Tilda fought with her considerable political clout; and the town's holistic doctor whose mysterious herbal potions are consumed by customers far and wide.
As Faye watches the psychics and charlatans jockey for power, and sends a cry for help to her shrewd husband Joe, Tilda's sister, Myrna, is slowly dying. Will Rosebower reveal its secrets to Faye before more goes up in flames?
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169899085 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 11/05/2013 |
| Series: | Faye Longchamp Series , #8 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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