Every book remembers who held it last. And some of those memories can kill.
Cass Ravel has a gift she'd rather not have: when she touches an old book, its pages whisper back the last secret its owner carried to the grave ? words that bloom in wet ink, then vanish as if they were never there. It's a talent that ended her career in London and earned her a reputation she can't outrun. So when a wealthy, reclusive bibliophile summons her to restore the library at remote Aldworth Hall, she comes for the work, the fee, and the quiet.
But the man who wrote to her is already dead.
They're calling it a weak heart. The books say otherwise. As Cass sets to work among the dust and candlelight of the finest private library she's ever seen, the volumes give up their secrets one by one ? a forged signature, a poisoned glass, a will that has quietly gone missing. Someone inside the Hall smiled at their host across the dinner table and watched him die. And now that someone knows exactly what Cass can do.
Trapped by the fen mists with a house full of polished liars ? and a watchful librarian who may be the only person she can trust ? Cass must read the truth out of the ink before the killer closes the book on her for good.
If you love:
- Atmospheric country-house whodunits and classic closed-circle mysteries
- A clever, prickly heroine with a touch of the uncanny
- Gothic candlelit libraries, old secrets, and a slow-burn romance
- Poison, forgery, and a puzzle that plays fair to the last page
- Cozy mysteries with a whisper of magic and no gore or spice
A haunting, twisty standalone mystery for readers who like their tea strong, their houses grand, and their secrets deadly.
Open the book. See what the ink knows.
