About this item
In the 23rd installment of the bestselling Aunt Dimity series, a dark and stormy night kicks off a ghost chase in rural England On a dull and dreary October day, Lori Shepherd and her husband Bill set off for the historic town of Rye, in the southeast coast of England, for a quiet weekend together without the kids. Bill must first pay a visit to a reclusive client--but after Lori drops him off, the storm that's been brewing intsensifies so much she ends up stranded in an ancient, rambling inn called the King's Ransom, in a tiny attic room up a creaky (and creepy) set of narrow stairs. When Lori begins hearing footsteps and strange noises in the night, Aunt Dimity reminds her rather tartly the inn is almost certainly haunted, but that not all ghosts have any interest in harming the living, don't you know. But the longer Lori is stuck at the inn, the stranger things seem. She learns that the inn's name comes from a king's ransom in smuggled goods that passed through the village in ages past, and that the inn's winding hallways connect to a network of smuggler caves and tunnels. And then there's the inn's hulking, grizzled cook, a mute ex-con named Steve who seems to be everywhere at once. Are the noises she hears the spirits of smuggling's past? Or should Lori be more concerned with the living inhabitants of the inn? Joining forces with her new friend Bishop Smallwood, Lori sets out to discover once and for all who--or what--is haunting the King's Ransom.
About the Author
Nancy Atherton is not a white-haired Englishwoman with a softly wrinkled face, a wry smile, and wise gray eyes, nor does she live in a thatched cottage behind a babbling brook in a tranquil, rural corner of the Cotswolds. She has never taken tea with a vicar (although she drank an Orange Squash with one once) and she doesn't plan to continue writing after her allotted time on earth (though such plans are, as well all know, subject to change without notice) .If you prefer to envision her as an Englishwoman, she urges you to cling to your illusions at all costs -- she treasures carefully nurtured illusions. She also urges you to read no further. Because the truth is that Nancy Atherton is a dark-haired American with a generally unwrinkled face, a beaming smile, and hazel eyes, who lives in a plain house in Colorado Springs. She comes from a large, gregarious family (five brothers and two sisters!) and enjoys socializing as much as she enjoys solitude. So if you are looking for her at a convention, don't look for a stately grande dame in a flowery dress. Look for a woman in jeans and sneakers who's bounding around like a hyperactive gerbil. That'll be her. And she'd love to meet you. Japanese: ???? ?????
