In this mystery dripping with local history, Clementine Pennock, a historic preservationist getting her career established in the town of Red Hills, just can’t seem to get a break. Her engagement having abruptly ended, she’s focused on winning a large series of grant projects for the old Coturn Mansion now that the town’s longtime playboy has passed. What she wishes would go smoothly goes anything but as her crew encounters the mysterious remains of someone in an old cast iron stove on the property. Well, a portion of someone. What other secrets will the old house hold within its ornately wallpapered walls? Clem has to work with the town’s aging detective Doc Macrae, an old friend of the late Mr. Coturn, to get her project back on track before her own lights go out.

Read the first chapter here.