Murder at Raven’s Edge(An English Village Mystery Book 1)
When Milla Graham returns to her childhood home of Raven’s Edge after eighteen long years away, she finds the perfect English village looks much the same – all rose-covered cottages, nosy neighbours, and quaint teashops full of scones and gossip.
But her nostalgic visit takes a dark turn when the body of a local woman is discovered in an abandoned manor house on the edge of the forest. The murder scene is chillingly close to that of Milla’s own mother, whose death was never solved. As she begins to investigate the connection, Milla realises this adorable village is guarding some dark secrets.
Handsome, grumpy local police detective Ben Taylor doesn’t believe in coincidences, and he doesn’t think mysterious newcomer Milla Graham is as blameless as she seems. Why is she really here in Raven’s Edge, and how come she keeps turning up at his crime scenes, causing trouble? Can he solve this murder case without losing himself – or his heart – to the rather distracting Ms Graham?
When another body is found, everyone becomes a suspect – from the barmaid at the local pub to Milla Graham herself. It seems that in Raven’s Edge, not everybody is as friendly, or as innocent, as they first seem.
This picture-perfect English village is full of rumour, romance… and murder! A gripping, funny, absolutely unputdownable murder mystery, which is perfect for fans of Faith Martin, Fiona Leitch and M.C. Beaton.
Murder at Ravenswood House(An English Village Mystery Book 2)
A gruesome murder in charming Raven’s Edge sends Milla Graham sleuthing to catch a killer, win back her detective ex, and dig up a decades-old secret along the way…
When a shocking murder rocks the picture-perfect English village of Raven’s Edge, erstwhile amateur detective Milla Graham finds herself right at the centre of the mystery. Still reeling from her recent breakup with local police officer Ben Taylor, Milla sets her sights on solving the case, hoping to win Ben back.
But when the evidence begins to point to Milla’s old friend and former paramour Lorcan Black, she must choose between her loyalties to the past and the possibilities of the future. Meanwhile, Ben is on a different trail – he’s begun to suspect that the murderer could be someone from his own family’s dark history.
Further complicating matters are Milla’s meddling grandmother, Ben’s no-nonsense police partner Harriet, and David the surprisingly young and sexy new vicar. With shocking twists around every cobblestone corner, the truth refuses to stay buried for long in this quaint village, whose picture-postcard façade hides decades of buried grudges, plots, and betrayal.
Will Milla solve the mystery in time to rescue her relationship with Ben? Can Ben face the skeletons in his family’s closet before one of his own relatives meets the same bloody end?
Brimming with drama, intrigue, romance and quirky characters, this addictive tale will have cosy mystery fans racing through the pages long into the night. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Fiona Leitch will love this book!
Louise Marley writes murder mysteries and romantic comedies. She is lucky enough to live in a village where there is a famous library and TWO ruined castles. (Her husband still thinks they moved there by accident.)
Her first published novel was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, which was a finalist in Poolbeg’s ‘Write a Bestseller’ competition. She has also written articles for the Irish press and short stories for women’s magazines such as Take a Break and My Weekly. Previously, Louise worked as a civilian administrative officer for the police.
I’m delighted to welcome Katharine Quarmby and her new book, The Low Road, to the blog, with searching for The Low Road in Historical Sources.
Searching for The Low Road in Historical Sources
Katharine Quarmby
The search for the story that became The Low Road started around seven years ago now, when I came across a description of one local area in my Norfolk, England, hometown. It mentioned in passing an area at the end of the town called Lush Bush, where a local woman, Mary Tyrell, had been buried on the parish boundary in 1813. I started to dig further, through local newspaper articles and found that the Norfolk Chronicle had reported in that year that she had taken poison and died after being investigated for infanticide. She was then staked through the heart after death in an archaic punishment called felo de se. A daughter, then only described by her initials, A.T., had survived and had been sent to a refuge in London.
It wasn’t a lot to go on, but I really wanted to know more, so I started by guessing that her first name was Ann and was lucky enough to find an Ann Tyrell, (called Hannah in my novel) who had lived at the Refuge for the Destitute in Hackney, East London. I then looked her up in the Hackney Archives, in East London, just a bike or bus ride away from my home, in the great Minute Books that noted in copperplate handwriting the history of the Refuge and of the lives of the young people, known as Objects, who lived there. No traces of the physical building exist now – all that is left is writing. There is just one painting that shows the Refuge as well, looming above some local almshouses.
I walked up and down the Hackney Road in search for it, and found the rough location of the institution where she had been admitted, after being banished from the hometown we shared and being found to have understood, or be ‘sensible’ that her mother had committed an “Iniquity”. It was near a scruffy car park, there were dark alleys nearby and I did my best to imagine Ann living there, using the brilliant Layers of London historical maps to go back in time.
In real life, just as in my novel, Hannah met another destitute there, Annie Simpkins. The girls forged a friendship that I imagined deepened into love and in December 1821 they took a risky decision which then dictated the course of their lives from then on. The Minute Books revealed that on a winter evening in 1821 the girls ran away with stolen goods from the Refuge – perhaps to make a life for themselves, who knows – and were apprehended by the Superintendent of the Refuge.
I traced Hannah and Annie onwards, to the National Archives at Kew, West London, and also through the Old Bailey Online Proceedings, which have been digitised and provide a unique insight into the British criminal justice system. The Old Bailey records show that the girls – just fifteen and eighteen at the time – stood trial for ‘grand larceny’, or thieving, on January 10, 1822. They were sentenced to seven years’ transportation.
But as I found, when I visited the National Archives in Kew, West London, they didn’t go immediately. It was six years later when our Ann was transported. So what happened in between? I kept looking. First of all, they went to the Millbank Penitentiary, now buried underneath the Tate Britain gallery. A stone buttress by the Thames nearby states: “Near this site stood Millbank Prison which was opened in 1816 and closed in 1880. This buttress stood at the head of the river steps from which until 1867, prisoners sentenced to transportation embarked on their journey to Australia.” There are few other traces, except some prison walls, unmarked, and a trench which had been dug around the prison which is now used to dry washing for nearby houses.
Later, the archives also revealed that the girls had even been sent to a prison hulk on the Thames. At the National Archives I was handed a document, done up with red ribbon, about their life on the hulks. Had anyone else ever untied this, I wondered, as I pulled on the ribbon, then unfolded the document. There were the names of my girls and others, resident on the prison ship on the Thames – and there was a signature at the bottom from the then Home Secretary, Robert Peel, pardoning them, and so it was that in 1825 the girls were set free and ended up working at the Ship Inn in Millbank, near the Houses of Parliament.
The last traces of my Ann, in UK history, were back in the Hackney Archives. She had asked for money so she could return to Harleston, Norfolk, but found that all her friends were dead; she had then been granted a stay in the temporary part of the Refuge…and then she vanished. All I knew was that the Superintendent of the Refuge had written back to a lawyer in my hometown to let him know that Ann had been transported to ‘Botany Bay’ in 1828.
I could find no record of her in Australian archives and so at this point I had to pivot and tell the story as fiction, rather than non-fiction. I novelised what happened to them in Australia, taking as my guide the history of other girls and women who were exiled, and was lucky enough to receive a grant from the UK Society of Authors so I could visit both the Hunter Valley and Tasmania, landscape into which I imagined the story of my two girls, exiled, as part of the 26,000 women who were transported to mainland Australia and Tasmania – the largest forced migration of English, Scots, Welsh and Irish people, numbering some 162,000 convicts in all, between 1767-1868. Telling that part of the story – part of the story of these islands, also meant paying attention to, and honouring, the Indigenous communities whose lives were desecrated by the British arriving.
From a trace of a story, then, The Low Road became a novel that uncovered lost histories: the stories of poor women from rural areas, the stories of convicts sent to penal colonies because of poverty and political activism, the stories of people who often left no records behind as a result of illiteracy and hardship, and the largely overlooked history of same sex relationships between convict women. This was a story from the bottom up, of how three generations of girls and women from one family were caught up in political times, from the fall-out of the Napoleonic wars and the poverty after, to the rise of the agricultural workers, the Swing Rioters, and other political dissidents and beyond the seas to Australia.
When I go back to Harleston to visit my family we go on a walk that takes us through the town, past the inn where a jury of men held an inquest on Mary’s body, past the green where the pond used to be where the baby was found, and all the way down to Lush Bush, where Mary is buried in an unmarked grave. I think of Mary and Hannah every time, and I hope I’ve done them justice.
Heres’s the blurb
In 1828, two young women were torn apart as they were sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay. Will they ever meet again?
Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of a woman – Mary Tyrell – is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, where she will be trained for a life of domestic service.
It is at the Refuge that Hannah meets Annie Simpkins, a fellow resident, and together they forge a friendship that deepens into passionate love. But the strength of this bond is put to the test when the girls are caught stealing from the Refuge’s laundry, and they are sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, setting them on separate paths that may never cross again.
Drawing on real events, The Low Road is a gripping, atmospheric tale that brings to life the forgotten voices of the past – convicts, servants, the rural poor – as well as a moving evocation of love that blossomed in the face of prejudice and ill fortune.
Katharine Quarmby has written non-fiction, short stories and books for children and her debut novel, The Low Road, is published by Unbound in 2023. Her non-fiction works include Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People (Portobello Books, 2011) and No Place to Call Home: Inside the Real Lives of Gypsies and Travellers (Oneworld, 2013). She has also written picture books and shorter e-books.
She is an investigative journalist and editor, with particular interests in disability, the environment, race and ethnicity, and the care system. Her reporting has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Times of London, the Telegraph, New Statesman and The Spectator. Katharine lives in London.
Katharine also works as an editor for investigative journalism outlets, including Investigative Reporting Denmark and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Reviews are starting to come in, and I’d like to thank all the reviewers for taking the time to have a look at The Royal Women Who Made England. You can check out the reviews over on the Pen and Sword website.
In the meantime, don’t forget to enter the combined competition between my two publishers for signed copies of The Royal Women and King of Kings (UK only. Closing date 6th Feb 2024). You can find the details here.
And, I have another little video to share with you below about one of the later Anglo-Norman sources I made use of while researching the book.
Since moving to Raven Creek, Phoebe Winchester has had a lot on her plate.
She’s renovating the Victorian manor she inherited from her Aunt Eudora, running a tea shop (and secret magical apothecary), and learning to be a witch. But when she discovers a dead body at an estate sale, and suspicion falls on her, even Phoebe wonders if this is simply too much.
Forced to take action to clear her name, Phoebe enlists Rich Lofting, handsome private detective and childhood friend, to assist with her investigation, all while sorting out her unresolved feelings for him.
Is there something more sinister lurking in the shadows of this small tight-knit town? And does Phoebe really want to find out?
Spellbound is a cosy crime featuring our main character, Phoebe, who is a book-shop owner, bread-baker, owned by a cat, and a little bit of a modern-day witch. This isn’t spell-casting witchcraft, but rather a woman with some additional powers with which to imbue her teas and cakes.
When not baking, fixing up her house, being a general ‘good-egg’ and deciding whether or not to risk a romance with a new man, Phoebe manages to embroil herself in a crime, which somehow, finds her, and her cat implicated.
What ensues is a small-town, feel-good, crime busting episode, as Phoebe, determined to clear her name, gets into one or two scrapes before finally finding the true culprit.
This is an enjoyable, light-hearted read, with enough intrigue to keep the reader intrigued.
Meet the author
Gretchen Rue lives in the Canadian prairies, which affords her ample time to read during six months of winter. She plays cat mom to four mostly indifferent fur children, and plant mom to roughly 100 very demanding flora. When she isn’t sipping tea and working on her next novel, she enjoys swimming, hiking, and watching baseball.
War is creeping back into the land. As silent as snowfall, as inevitable as winter. They’ve had sixteen years of peace, but all things must end.
Tribune Sixtus Victorinus has grown old, complacent. Blind to the truth that stares him in the face, he contents himself with what he has. He runs errands for the Dux Britanniarum Flavius Maximus and watches with joy as his boys grow to become men.
It is his friend, Prefect Gaius Felicius, who first spots the signs. Once more, the Caledonian tribes are rearing their heads in the north, but the greatest danger does not lie with them.
For there is a new pretender to the throne of the West. Another man who seeks to drape himself in purple. Caught up in a scheme they cannot comprehend, Victorinus and Felicius must navigate their way through both a war in the depths of winter, and a treasonous plot that will shake the Roman Empire to its core.
A new age dawns on the men of Britannia. For Victorinus, he must fight for the right to see the sun rise over it.
I’ve just been checking my review for book 1 in this series, and I see I also gave it five stars. Adam is a lucky author because I’m always told that I don’t often hand out a 5-star review. (Check out my review for Valentia here).
And he’ll be pleased to know he’s done it again with Usurper.
I will say that this era – the coming end of Roman Britain fascinates me. Adam’s recreation of it speaks to me. We know what’s coming. The people in these books do not, although perhaps they suspect it.
Usurper continues the story from Valentia, but we move forward 16 years. Our two main characters remain Tribune Sixtus Victorinus and Felicius. Felicius is still a career Roman. Sixtus is not. They are both older, perhaps wiser, and contending with the results of their decisions as younger men.
Sixtus has finally given up the drink, but he is beset with heartache at the breakdown of his marriage and the long-ago death of his small son, which he missed because he was away fighting. Sixtus is a man trying to do his best in a world where the Roman influence of his younger days seems to have bled away. He’s still a friend and ally of Theodosius, the younger emperor, and indeed, they remain in contact via letter – a fabulous device ensuring the reader knows what’s happening beyond the shores of Britannia.
With all that said, this is an action-packed novel. There is barely a chapter that goes by without one fight or another. As we travel from Londinium to many locations on the Wall and even further north, Sixtus gets an absolute beating. Drost makes a welcome reappearance, and conspiracies abound. The set-up for book 3 in this trilogy is impeccably well-paced – I didn’t know how the book would end – although I had some suspicions. It didn’t do what I thought it would, and now I can’t wait for the concluding volume in the trilogy.
It is a fabulous Roman-era action and adventure story that rings with conviction and conspiracy, which readers of the genre will devour.
Meet the author
Adam has for many years held a passion for the ancient world. As a teenager he picked up Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden, and has been obsessed with all things Rome ever since.
After ten years of immersing himself in stories of the Roman world, he decided to have a go at writing one for himself, and hasn’t stopped since. Check out the books on the website, or follow Adam on Social Media for regular updates.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamPLofthouse Find him on Facebook: facebook.com/AdamPLofthouse Instagram: adamplofthouse
My fabulous publishers are working together and offering a hardback edition of King of Kings and The Royal Women Who Made England (UK only). To enter you will need to access one of the original posts from Boldwood on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. I will add links here. (Closing date 6th Feb 2024. T &Cs apply).
Check out the Brunanburh Series page on my blog for my information about my fiction.
And, because I never tire of making a slight fool of myself, here’s me talking about some more of the research I undertook for the book and trying to explain the family tree of Otto I, King of the East Franks. Who knows how successful I’ve been.
It feels like I’ve been talking about this book forever, but the day is finally upon us. The Royal Women Who Made England is available in hardback in the UK from today. It will be released in the US in March.
If you’ve been hiding from me for the last few months, you might be wondering what this is all about. So here goes.
Throughout the tenth century, England, as it would be recognised today, formed. No longer many Saxon kingdoms, but rather, just England. Yet, this development masks much in the century in which the Viking raiders were seemingly driven from England’s shores by Alfred, his children and grandchildren, only to return during the reign of his great, great-grandson, the much-maligned Æthelred II.
Not one but two kings would be murdered, others would die at a young age, and a child would be named king on four occasions. Two kings would never marry, and a third would be forcefully divorced from his wife. Yet, the development towards ‘England’ did not stop. At no point did it truly fracture back into its constituent parts. Who then ensured this stability? To whom did the witan turn when kings died, and children were raised to the kingship?
The royal woman of the House of Wessex came into prominence during the century, perhaps the most well-known being Æthelflæd, daughter of King Alfred. Perhaps the most maligned being Ælfthryth (Elfrida), accused of murdering her stepson to clear the path to the kingdom for her son, Æthelred II, but there were many more women, rich and powerful in their own right, where their names and landholdings can be traced in the scant historical record.
Using contemporary source material, The Royal Women Who Made England can be plucked from the obscurity that has seen their names and deeds lost, even within a generation of their own lives.
So, who were these royal women? While some of us will know Æthelflæd, the Lady of Mercia, either because I think she is one of THE most famous Saxon women, or because of The Last Kingdom TV series and books, but she is merely one of many.
I’ve fictionalised Elfrida and her contemporaries, Eadgifu, the third wife of Edward the Elder and also some of his daughters, as well as Ælfwynn, the daughter of Æthelflæd. My first non-fiction title is me sharing my research that these stories are based upon.
I’ve also ‘found’ many other women of the period who have left some sort of physical reminder, mostly in charters or because their wills have survived.
In total, I discuss over twenty women directly involved with the royal family, either by birth or marriage, and also a further forty, who appear in the sources. I also take a good look at what these sources are and how they perhaps aren’t always as reliable as we might hope. I make an attempt to ‘place’ these women in the known historical events of the period. And draw some conclusions, which surprised even me.
You can find some of my blog posts about these women below.
In the online resource, The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE), a database of every known name from the Saxon period, 33,981 male names are listed. There are only 1,460 female names for the 600-year period of Saxon England. Only 4 per cent of entries are women (there are also many anonymous ones which may mask more women). Twenty-one (possibly twenty-two) of these belong to the royal women of the tenth century. So, who were they?
Æthelgifu, Alfred and Ealhswith’s second daughter, the abbess of Shaftesbury.
Ælfthryth, the Countess of Flanders, their third daughter.
Ecgwynn (if that was her name), mother to King Athelstan, and his unnamed sister, given the name of Ecgwynn/Edith in later sources
Lady Ælfflæd the second wife of Edward the Elder. They had many children. Six of them were daughters, Æthelhild, Eadgifu, Eadflæd, Eadhild, Eadgyth and Ælfgifu.
Edward’s third wife, Lady Eadgifu, certainly had one daughter, Eadburh. (There is the possibility that she had two.)
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, whose mother Wynflæd is named, was the first wife of Edmund. Æthelflæd of Damerham was Edmund’s second wife.
Edmund’s oldest son, Eadwig, married another Lady Ælfgifu.
Edmund’s youngest son, Edgar, would marry, or have children with no fewer than three women, Æthelflæd, Wulfthryth and Elfrida/Ælfthryth. From these three unions, one daughter was born, Edith/Eadgyth.
Another Ælfgifu was the first wife of Æthelred II. His second wife was Lady Emma of Normandy. At least four daughters were born to Ælfgifu, a daughter (also called Ælfgifu), Eadgyth, Wulfhild and Ælfthryth, while Lady Emma was the mother to Gode.
You can read all about these women in my non-fiction book, and there are also some links to blog posts I’ve written, which may be of interest.
Below you can hear me try and explain the importance of the marriages of some of these women into the West Frankish dynasty. I also forget the title of my non-fiction title, and generally make a bit of a mess of it. Enjoy:)
The Family of Charles III, the king of the West Franks (in my own words)
I’m delighted to welcome Katherine Kayne and her new book, Bound in Roses, to the blog.
Here’s the blurb
A red-hot Hawaiian romance blooms for a buttoned-up botanist who must learn to let go and embrace the ancient voice within her.
After a failed engagement to a high-society suitor in San Francisco, Lokelani “Lucky” Letwin returns home to Hawaii, leaving her beloved rosebushes behind. She’s desperate to establish a life of her own-a daunting task for any unmarried female in the early twentieth century but particularly for one passionate about the science of plants. A stubborn, song-filled girl now grown into an accomplished woman Lokelani is haunted by a family tragedy. She is as reluctant to acknowledge her past as she is to accept the supernatural force building inside her, strong and inevitable. She is a mākāhā, a Gate, ever connected to the power of the islands . . . if only she will admit it.
In her quest to retrieve her roses, Lokelani is reunited with Artemus Chang, a childhood friend, who’s now a handsome and successful lawyer. As the spark between them grows, Artemus agrees to help her recover her roses, only to discover her kisses leave him literally breathless. When a mystical teacher enters her life, Lokelani’s embrace of the voice of ancient power bubbling up within her takes on new urgency and new apprehensions.
Will Lokelani continue to be bound by guilt and fear? Or will she learn to reconcile her gifts – as both a practical botanist and a mystical Gate – to sing once more and claim her love?
Buy Link:
This title is also available to read on #KindleUnlimited
Award winning author Katherine Kayne writes deeply romantic historical fantasy set in old Hawaii. Her critically acclaimed debut novel BOUND IN FLAME delivers myth, magic and all the sparks promised by the title. The next installment in her Hawaiian Ladies’ Riding Society series, BOUND IN ROSES, is available for preorder now.
Katherine’s novels are filled with horses and history and happily ever after . . . and heroes strong enough to follow their heroine’s lead. She spends a part of each year on Hawaii Island immersing herself in Hawaii’s past. Aided of course by the occasional mai tai. Katherine created the world of the Hawaiian Ladies Riding Society to tell the stories of the fearless horsewomen of the islands’ ranches. Because who doesn’t love a suffragist on horseback? With a bullwhip? Wearing flowers?
If you come along for the ride, be prepared for almost anything to happen. Katherine can promise you fiery kisses, charming cowboys, women who ride like the rainbow to save the day, and that rarest of beasts-handsome men who like to dance.
I’m delighted to welcome Linda Lappin and her new book, Signatures in Stone, to the blog, with a snippet.
Snippet
Finestone paused on the threshold, as if waiting to see my reaction, then stepped in behind me, seized my arm, and began my guided tour: “In the mid-sixteenth century,” he began, “when this place was created, parks and gardens were meant to offer more than just an aesthetic experience, a pleasant promenade in the shade or a showcase for flowerbeds. They were models of the cosmos and also tools for altering one’s consciousness, possibly for changing one’s destiny. Entering a place like this was like succumbing to a dream. Every detail was intended to produce a specific effect on the mind and body, to excite and soothe the senses like a drug. To awaken the unconscious self.”
The sculptures came at you helter skelter, truly like images in a dream. Wherever a crest of rock or boulder protruded from the ground, there had the sculptor’s chisel captured another frenzied spirit of the underworld.
Strewn around us were river gods, pouting putti, lustful Pans; ogres, nymphs and beasties; creatures shaken free from the bowels of the earth by some cataclysm, ready to sink back in at a moment’s notice if the earth should heave again.
“The park may conceivably contain an encoded message. Its statues and sculptures may spell out a formula for making gold, or for what gold symbolized to the alchemists: Immortality. Redemption. Eternal Love. Wisdom. Something of a sort dissimulated by private pictograms,” said Finestone.
“So the Monster Park is a sort of book,” I ventured, “a book of emblems hewn in stone, conveying a message, telling a story, revealing an enigma. “
“You mean,” he said, “concealing one.”
Here’s the blurb
Captivating critics and readers, SIGNATURES IN STONE, was the OVERALL WINNER in the DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARDS for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense Writing – best mystery of 2013
Rome, Italy – November 2023 – Pleasure Boat Studio is thrilled to announce the release of the second edition of Linda Lappin’s celebrated novel, SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY. This captivating suspense tale takes readers on a thrilling journey through the enigmatic Monster Park of Bomarzo, also known as the Sacred Wood, an extraordinary Baroque sculpture garden in Italy. With the 500th anniversary of the park’s creation, this edition is accompanied by a magnificent new cover and a series of Tarot card illustrations by Santa Fe artist Carolyn Florek.
In SIGNATURES IN STONE, readers are transported to the atmospheric setting of the Monster Park of Bomarzo, a sixteenth-century garden adorned with mythical creatures believed to represent a terrifying journey into the realm of nightmares. Against this backdrop, four travelers find themselves intertwined in a fate-driven Italian holiday. Daphne, a British writer of occult mysteries, her down-on-his-luck aristocratic publisher Nigel, the aspiring artist and American gigolo Clive, and the art historian Professor Finestone, all converge in a dilapidated villa near the park. They are attended by rustic servants who harbor secrets of their own.
Professor Finestone has made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing that the garden was designed by one of Italy’s greatest artists as a transformative experience that delves into the shadow side of life. Over the centuries, the park’s meanders continue to influence the minds and destinies of those who venture within. As the group explores their heart’s desires amidst the haunting sculptures, they become entangled in a web of intrigue and danger. When Daphne, renowned for writing cozy murder tales, becomes the prime suspect in a shocking homicide, she must confront her own darkness and rely on her sleuthing skills to uncover the terrifying truth.
Linda Lappin’s gripping tale presents an intriguing exploration of gardens in Renaissance Italy, where they were regarded as tools for altering consciousness and changing destiny. The Monster Park of Bomarzo becomes the backdrop for a “Gothic-in-Wonderland” phantasmagoria, immersing readers in a suspenseful and thrilling journey.
New Edition of Linda Lappin’s Award-Winning SIGNATURES IN STONE: A BOMARZO MYSTERY Commemorates the 500th Anniversary of the Monster Park.
Praise for Signatures in Stone:
“Layers of mystery are woven into Linda Lappin’s beautifully written and atmospheric historical novel set in Bomarzo, Italy’s enigmatic park of stone monsters.”
~ Gigi Pandian, author of The Accidental Alchemist.
“Deftly mixing fascinating art history and murder with an exotic atmospheric setting (the Bomarzo garden actually exists), dramatic historical period (1928 fascist Italy), and fully fleshed characters, Lappin (The Etruscan) has written a hallucinatory gothic mystery in which no one is as they appear. Daphne is a most memorable, if a bit unreliable narrator. Readers looking for an intelligent summer mystery will find much to savor here.”
Linda Lappin, poet, translator, novelist, and travel writer is the prize-winning author of four novels: The Etruscan (Wynkin deWorde, 2004); Katherine’s Wish (Wordcraft, 2008), dealing with the last five years of Katherine Mansfield’s life; Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery (Pleasureboat Studio, 2013,2023), overall winner of the Daphne Du Maurier award for best mystery novel of 2013; and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne (Serving House Books, 2020), 2021 Daphne Du Maurier award finalist and shortlisted for the 2021 Montaigne Medal for Books of Distinction.
She is also the author of The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci, (Travelers Tales, 2015), winner of a Nautilus Award in the category of creativity in 2015.
A former Fulbright scholar to Italy, she has lived mainly in Rome for over thirty years. She is at work on a second Daphne Dublanc mystery novel, Melusine, set in Bolsena. The second edition of Signatures in Stone (2023) has been issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Monster Park.
MJ Porter 