From 4th grade to 6th grade I was obsessed with the Babysitters Club book series. Book #9, The Ghost at Dawn's House featured a secret passage. Growing up in a 1970's colonial-style home meant that there were no secrets to be had. My Grandpa's house, however, was totally mysterious. Grandpa Joe was my dad's stepdad. He and my grandma married in 1982, and they lived in the home he had owned with his first wife. The upstairs was off-limits to kids and therefore incredibly mysterious and just begging to be explored. When allowed to venture upstairs with my grandma, I would catch a glimpse in one of the bedrooms and the various glass animal figurines but I was always denied entry. I was mostly intrigued by the small door in the hallway that I was convinced would lead to a magical place. I never did get the chance to fully explore.
Dartmoor, with its mists, bleak winter weather, and an overwhelming sense of isolation, is the perfect place to build a prison. It's not a place many would choose to live--yet the Governor of Dartmoor Prison did just that. When Herbert Russell retired, he bought All Hallow's Hall--a rambling Tudor mansion on the edge of the moor and lived there all his life. Now he's dead, and his estranged family is set to inherit his estate. But when the dead man's family comes to stay, the atmosphere of the moors seems to drift into every room. Floorboards creak, secret passageways echo, and wind whistles in the house's famous priest hole. And then, on the morning the family decides to leave All Hallow's Hall once and for all, their young son Timmy goes missing...
The year is 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon--all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night."
A girl is found hiding in a secret room in a house being renovated after a terrible crime. For weeks she has survived by sneaking out at night, stealing food for herself and two dogs that are kept in the garden. She doesn't appear on any missing person's file or match the DNA of any murder victim. Six years later, still unidentified, the same girl is living in a secure children's home with a new name, Evie Cormac, when she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is sent to interview Evie and decide if she's ready to go free, but Evie Cormac is unlike he's anyone he's ever met. She's damaged, destructive, and self-hating, yet possessed of a gift, or a curse, that makes her both fascinating and dangerous to be with--the ability to tell when someone is lying. Soon he is embroiled in her unique and dangerous world, his life in utmost peril.
"Thousand Islands bookstore owner Shelby Cox sleuths the slaying of a true-crime writer who may have learned too much about a murder case that should have stayed shut. There are a thousand stories in New York's scenic Thousand Islands, and Bayside Books co-owner Shelby Cox stocks them all. But lately, the Blye Island bookseller's life is more about the investigation than inventory. True-crime writer Savannah Page caps off two successful signings at Bayside Books with a night in Blye Castle. She's there to research Joe Cabana, a colorful Prohibition-era mobster who owned the castle--until he was found dead in the island Grotto. But crime becomes all too true for Savannah. Her body turns up the next morning, in a secret passage at the bottom of the stairs. The last thing Shelby Cox wants is to sleuth another murder, but she's intrigued about how a killer could have reached the island after hours. She's not at a lack for suspects either. It could have been anyone from Savannah's fiancé, Liam Kennelly, who argued with her the evening before, to island caretaker Matthew Kessler, recently cleared of his wife's murder. Can Shelby keep regular store hours, elude the police chief, and assemble the clues into a hard-bound case without getting permanently shelved?"--Publisher.
It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch--and everyone is sick. Though many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma and Derek Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party--until a car appears in the winding driveway and promptly slides off the slick pavement and into a tree. Matilda "Tilly" Trout--a lost and scatterbrained, middle-aged woman--is mercifully unhurt and invited to stay the night. The next morning, Emma asks her guests if they would like a tour of the Manor--including a secret room she recently discovered. Several guests put forth guesses as to its purpose, but it's Tilly who correctly identifies the room as a chapel. Placing a palm on one of the ornately carved panels, Tilly finds a hidden compartment concealing a pile of glittering treasure--including an exquisitely decorated heart made of solid gold. Where did it come from, and why does it look so different from everything else in the chapel? Why didn't Emma even know about this hidden compartment in her own home until now--and how did Tilly? With Aunt Dimity's otherworldly help, Tilly's bewildering store of knowledge, and the village's collective memory to guide her, Lori sets out to unravel the mystery behind the heart of gold. Lori and Tilly both discover they'll never spend another holiday alone--and Christmas finally comes to Finch!-- Publisher's description.
Enigmalogist Jeremy Logan who specializes in investigating inexplicable phenomena probes strange happenings at the Newport, RI, mansion that houses the Symposikon think tank.
Jeremy Logan finds himself on the coastline of Newport, Rhode Island, where he has been retained by Lux, one of the oldest and most respected think tanks in America. In the sprawling seaside mansion, one of its most distinguished doctors began acting erratically and then killed himself in a truly shocking fashion. In a long-dormant wing of the estate, Logan uncovers an ingeniously hidden secret room, concealed and apparently untouched for decades-- and the source of completely unexpected danger.
"Jane's boyfriend is missing, and she thinks she may find him at North Carolina's historic Biltmore Estate. Officially, she's there to learn about luxury hotel management, but she's also prowling around the breathtaking buildings and grounds looking for secret passageways and clues. One of the staff gardeners promises to be helpful . . . that is, until his body turns up in the reading room of his cottage, a book on his lap. When she finally locates the kidnapped Edwin, his captor insists that she lead him back to Storyton Hall, convinced that it houses Ernest Hemingway's lost suitcase, stolen from a Paris train station in 1922. But before they can turn up the treasure, the bell may toll for another victim . . ."--Publisher description.
Aidan Thomas is miserable. And it's much more than the strange nightmares he's been having. Just when life seemed to be coming together for Aidan, his parents suddenly move the family across the country to take care of his wheelchair-bound grandfather. When strange events begin to occur, Aidan is drawn into his grandfather's basement where he discovers three ancient scrolls and an invitation to another world.
In this riveting and richly drawn novel from "one of the master storytellers of historical fiction" (New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for the South of France after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret--and triggers a terrible tragedy.
"London, 1969. With the Swinging Sixties under way, Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May find themselves caught in the middle of a good, old-fashioned manor house murder mystery. The critics are mad for Christopher Fowler, his irascible creations Bryant and May, and the Peculiar author's gift for writing classic mysteries with delightfully uncommon twists. Entertainment Weekly calls Fowler "deadpan, sly, and always unexpectedly inventive," while The Guardian admires his "splendidly eccentric characters [and] corkscrew plots." This new novel is no exception. As the Swinging Sixties paint dreary London a DayGlo rainbow, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May find themselves caught in the middle of a good old-fashioned manor house mystery. Hard to believe, but even positively ancient sleuths like Bryant and May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit were young once. or at least younger. Flashback to London 1969: mods and dolly birds, sunburst minidresses--but how long would the party last? After accidentally sinking a barge painted like the Yellow Submarine, Bryant and May are relegated to babysitting one Monty Hatton-Jones, the star prosecution witness in the trial of a disreputable developer whose prefabs are prone to collapse. The job for the demoted detectives? Keep the whistle-blower safe for one weekend. The task proves unexpectedly challenging when their unruly charge insists on attending a party at the vast estate Tavistock Hall. With falling stone gryphons, secret passageways, rumors of a mythical beast, and an all-too-real dismembered corpse, the bedeviled policemen soon find themselves with "a proper country house murder" on their hands. Trapped for the weekend, Bryant and May must sort the victims from the suspects, including a hippie heir, a missing millionaire, a blond nightclub singer, and a mystery writer--not to mention Monty himself--and nobody is quite who he or she seems to be"-- Provided by publisher.
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