Carolyn agrees to act as the family representative at an old family home for a party hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. She is amused to learn they want everything left in its charmingly cobwebby condition–and they want to be visited by a ghost. Much to her surprise, one does oblige. It turns out to be an ancestor.
In Georgian London, a widowed Hannah Cole is determined to keep her business afloat. She became sole owner of the confectioner’s shop in Piccadilly after her husband was found murdered. The story takes the reader to the underground rivers of London, pleasure gardens, a magistrate’s office before the days of a police force.
The Fairway Players are once again desperate to put on a fabulous production (however improbable), this time to raise money for a new church roof. They plan is a panto mashup of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with a surprise Santa. But the real surprise comes when dress rehearsal reveals a dead body hidden inside the long-forgotten beanstalk prop.
Steve “Smithy” Smith is both Magwitch and Pip in this unusual story of wild expectations and the long-delayed solution to a mystery that has haunted him for decades.
There’s an Irish saying: “May you get all your wishes but one, so that you will always have something to strive for.” I’d say the bookworm has this covered – there is always one more book to read.