While gathering a collection of vintage book cover paintings for a special event in her quaint Rhode Island bookshop, Penelope discovers a spooky portrait of a beautiful woman, one who supposedly went mad, according to town gossip. Seymour, the local mailman, falls in love with the haunting image and buys the picture, refusing to part with it, even as fatal accidents befall those around it. Is the canvas cursed? Or is something more sinister at work?
For answers, Pen turns to an otherworldly source: Jack Shepard, PI. Back in the 1940s, Jack cracked a case of a killer cover artist, and (to Pen’s relief) his spirit is willing to help her solve this mystery, even if he and his license did expire decades ago.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
May 4, 2021 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
- ISBN: 9780698188631
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780698188631
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780698188631
- File size: 1937 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Kirkus
April 1, 2021
The secret of an amateur sleuth's success is the ghost of a dead shamus. Bookseller Penelope Thornton-McClure, an accomplished crime solver who never believed in ghosts until her visitation by 1940s gumshoe Jack Shepard, has planned a launch party for a coffee-table book written by a local couple showcasing the art of book covers. The event, which will also include an exhibit of original artwork, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning and is a big deal for Quindicott, Rhode Island. With her two geeky friends, mailman and Jeopardy! winner Seymour Tarnish and professor J. Brainert Parker, Pen visits Walter Waverly, whose enormous collection includes many original book-cover paintings he's willing to lend for the launch. A painting by Nathan Brock, a cover artist Jack once cleared of murder, is a standout, but Seymour is mesmerized by a self-portrait by Harriet McClure, a famed late-19th-century artist known as the "Madwoman of Quindicott," who left her caregivers a Victorian mansion that's currently run as an inn. Seymour buys the painting, but when the friends return the next day to pick up some artwork for the exhibit, they find Waverly dead. It looks like an accident, but Jack's warning voice suggests a second look, and that's just the opening act in a series of crimes involving the self-portrait, which is full of odd symbols that could lead to a treasure. At length Pen travels back to the 1940s with Jack while he investigates a mystery surrounding Brock that may be tied to the present-day murder. The collision of two cases from different times elevates this haunting tale above the average ghostly mystery.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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