THE PLOT AND THE PENDULUM

An ice-cold case suddenly heats up.

Lindsey Norris, the director of the Briar Creek Public Library, has a bit of a reputation as a sleuth. But when the notorious William Dorchester asks to see her, she never imagines it will lead to a murder investigation. Before she meets him, Lindsey’s friends at the library give her a short history of his involvement in the 1989 case of the runaway bride. Dorchester himself tells her that because his mother’s health is failing, he plans to sell her mansion to finance her assisted care and wants to donate all their books to the library: about 12,000 volumes, some of them very valuable. Since Dorchester’s in a hurry to return to his home in Florida, Lindsey quickly pulls together a group of volunteers to pack and remove the books. In the meantime, she learns more about the disappearance of Grace Little, whom Dorchester had once sought to marry until his mother forbade it. Instead, Grace married Tim Little, who people still suspect may have murdered her even years after he remarried and became a sterling citizen of the town. The mansion proves to be neglected, spooky, and equipped with strange air currents and a cat that comes and goes, one Dorchester claims isn’t his. Terror strikes when Lindsey discovers hidden behind the bookshelves a secret room containing a skeleton that’s identified as that of the missing Grace, who died from lack of oxygen. Who killed her, and why?

A bibliocentric mystery with a spooky touch that keeps you guessing.