Blake The Mystery of Four

A gripping, unforgettable crime thriller from the No. 1 bestselling author of Remember My Name
Main
ISBN: 978-1-83895-299-0
Verlag: Corvus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten

'A vivid cast of characters, endless intrigue and all the fun of a Golden Age mystery await you at Kilfenora House' Catherine Ryan Howard 'Witty, twisty and featuring my favourite antiheroine in a long time' Alex Marwood Murder is easy ... when it doesn't look like murder Tess Morgan has finally made her dream of restoring beautiful Kilfenora House and Gardens into a reality. But during rehearsals for the play that forms the opening weekend's flagship event, her dream turns into a nightmare when a devastating accident looks set to ruin her carefully laid plans. There are rumours that Kilfenora House is cursed, but this feels personal, and becomes increasingly terrifying when more than one body is discovered. Could someone be closing in on Tess herself? Clarissa Westmacott, ex star of stage and screen, certainly believes so, particularly when she learns that purple-flowered aconite has been picked from the Poison Garden. And Clarissa will stop at nothing to protect the friend she has come to see as a daughter...

Sam Blake has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks and she had an idea for a book. Sam has had a string of No. 1 bestsellers with her runaway bestselling debut, Little Bones, the first in the Cat Connolly trilogy, shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Switching to psychological thrillers, Keep Your Eyes on Me was a No. 1 bestseller, and her next book, The Dark Room was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Her last thriller, Remember My Name, went straight to No. 1 in January 2022 and was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Sam is one of the best-connected people in crime writing, the founder of Europe's biggest online writer's magazine, Writing.ie, she relaunched National Crime Reading Month for the CWA in 2022. Originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire, Sam now lives at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains, near Dublin in Ireland. Follow her on social @samblakebooks. Visit www.samblakebooks.com for news and events and get a bonus free thriller when you subscribe to her newsletter.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Blake, Sam

Leseproben

Chapter 12

THE SHOP BELL tinkled and Genevieve groaned quietly to herself. She was on her knees behind the counter, and while she’d like to think that it was a customer, so far this morning all she’d had was a steady trickle of people popping in en route to the post office or the Spar, looking for updates on Conor Kelly’s situation.

Gen had absolutely no idea how or why everyone thought she would have the latest news from the hospital, but it seemed linked to her being admin of the forum. That made less sense still, but then the local gossips didn’t always take logic as the first path.

She’d even had someone call in to complain about a loose dog down beside the pub. She had no idea why that should be her problem.

Perhaps she should put up a sign charging for citizens’ advice.

Crawling backwards from her inspection of the deep drawer under the counter where she held lay-away items for anyone who needed to spread payments – a totally ridiculous idea in Clarissa’s book – Genevieve looked out over the top of the counter.

‘Good morning, Katie-Lou, what brings you in on a Friday? Have you got a few hours free to help me out?’

Pulling the skirts of her flowing dress up around her so she didn’t step on them as she stood up, Gen struggled to her feet in a jangle of jewellery. As she appeared over the top of the counter, Katie-Lou jumped sideways as if she’d been caught with her hand in the sweet jar.

Standing in the middle of the shop with her baby pink handbag looped over her elbow and her phone in her hand, Katie-Lou had turned a delicate shade of pink herself. Obviously up to something, she swished her long, white-blonde hair over her shoulder and laughed in that slightly insane, giddy way she had that drove Clarissa nuts.

‘No, I was just . . .’ She raised her heavily darkened eyebrows innocently and pointed at the chessboard laid out on the mahogany dining table that dominated the central section of the shop. ‘Did you notice someone’s moved these pieces?’

‘Don’t touch them.’ Gen’s reaction was a little too explosive. ‘Sorry, that’s Clarissa’s pet project.’

Katie-Lou looked at her, frowning hard. ‘Oh. I see. I’d noticed they’ve moved a bit before. I, er . . . Sometimes I moved them, too. Is that bad?’

Gen faked a smile. ‘It’s fine, Clarissa seems to keep track. Just perhaps don’t touch it?’

Gen resisted the temptation to roll her eyes, and instead took in Katie-Lou’s freshly applied fake tan, emphasised by a white gypsy top and skin-tight jeans, shell-pink toenails peeping from her high-heeled mules, matching her long fingernails.

Katie-Lou took a step backwards, both hands raised in the air in mock terror.

‘I know you said don’t touch it before. I was just dusting, like.’

. Genevieve could hear Clarissa’s voice in her ear.

‘It’s fine, there’s always plenty to dust. You can leave the chessboard to Clarissa. How can I help?’

Katie-Lou’s eyes opened wide as if she’d just remembered why she came in and was shocked all over again.

‘Did you hear about Conor?’

Keeping her face deliberately blank, Gen looked at her for a moment longer than was normal, biting back her retort. It wasn’t Katie-Lou’s fault that she was at the end of her tether with questions about Conor. Despite Gen’s frequent critical thoughts on Katie-Lou’s skill set, Gen had taken her on because she was just so genuine, even if sometimes she was a little testing. You got what you saw with Katie-Lou, sometimes hilariously so, and despite everything, Gen wholeheartedly appreciated that about her. She was the most guileless girl Gen had ever met. Taking a breath, she said calmly, ‘I did – terrible accident.’

‘It was. Awful.’

Katie-Lou looked as if she was going to ask more, but finally seemed to read Genevieve’s expression and paused for a moment as if she was mentally changing tack.

‘So I was just on my way to the Spar and I wondered if you knew anyone who would want to share a stall at the craft market at opening weekend. I’ve booked and paid for it. I’m going to be doing cakes and jam and Mam’s eggs, but I don’t think I’ve got enough to fill a stall. Mam’s going to her sister’s this weekend, so she’s going to see if she’s got any of the flower baskets she makes, but I heard Mark said he’d put it into some sort of ghost hunters’ forum and there are loads of people coming.’

It took a moment for Genevieve to process. She looked at Katie-Lou quizzically. How on earth would she, Genevieve Fortune, have any idea about who was taking stalls in the craft market?

‘Tess has a waiting list, as far as I know. I’m sure if you drop her an email through the website she can find you someone who wants to share.’

‘I thought of that.’ Katie-Lou said it proudly, as if doing her own thinking was something to put up in lights. ‘But I thought Tess might be too busy, what with Conor and everything.’

Gen leaned on the counter. She had a point. ‘You could be right. Have you put it onto the forum? There’s bound to be someone.’

‘Well, that’s what I wanted to check, to see if it was OK to do that.’

‘Let’s do it now and then it’s done.’ Genevieve nodded, reaching for her phone.

She didn’t say that part.

Gen opened the forum, quickly scanning the posts so far today. It might be a closed group, but she’d still discovered that she had to moderate it a bit. Some people didn’t have the common sense they were born with when it came to appropriate questions and comments. She scrolled down and found the post from Mark Mulligan about ghosts.

Mark Mulligan

Opening weekend will be crazy busy. I put a post into Ghostly Houses Ireland about the Kilfenora Curse and it got hundreds of likes and replies.

LakeviewBandB

Mark Mulligan I saw a woman there when I was a child, she walked right through the front door!!! Scared me half to death. Lots of people have seen the children

TrackerMaguire

Mark Mulligan are they putting up decent signage for carparking? place will be jammed

Gen deftly answered. Tess did need the whole village up in arms about signage today. She knew the AA signs were going up next Thursday, and that Tess was getting marshals in place to organise the parking on O’Loughlin’s field.

‘Right, pop in a note about the stall.’ Gen paused. ‘I saw your post about Laetitia O’Riordan’s number – did you get her OK? A tarot party sounds fun.’

Taking Gen’s phone instead of using her own, Katie-Lou blushed.

‘All sorted, thanks.’ She said it in a chirpy sing-song that made it sound as if it was an outright lie.

‘Oh, OK.’

Gen didn’t quite know how to follow up that one. It was pretty clear Katie-Lou wanted to get her own cards done, although why that might be a secret, Gen couldn’t imagine.

Gen’s phone in her hand, Katie-Lou suddenly stopped.

‘Actually, I could ask Laetitia to share the stall. I never thought of that. She makes things with flowers, you know, and does the cards, obviously.’

‘Flowers?’

Gen wasn’t sure she really needed to know the answer, but part of her was fascinated by Laetitia and her hippy lifestyle. She’d been living in her camper van in the staff car park in Kilfenora for months now.

Katie-Lou nodded vigorously. ‘Lotions and potions, all sorts. Gorgeous hand cream. She’s got this really ancient herb book and she told me almost all of them grow in Kilfenora.’

‘Really?’

Gen almost squinted at her, trying to sort out everything she knew about Laetitia O’Riordan in her head. Was Katie-Lou telling her that Laetitia had moved into the car park in her camper van so that she could collect wild flowers and herbs from the Kilfenora grounds – to sell? Gen wasn’t so sure Tess would be impressed with that. Although perhaps if the products were any good, she could sell them in the tourist shop she was planning. Before she could finish forming the thought, Katie-Lou had rushed on enthusiastically.

‘Yes, there’s a poison garden and everything. She doesn’t use real poison, obviously, but they’ve incredible herb beds. She sent me a photo.’

? Gen sighed. She couldn’t remember Tess mentioning a Poison Garden, but she made a mental note to ask when everything calmed down next week. Gen was sure the gardeners knew and would have any noxious plants removed from the public spaces.

Katie-Lou realised she was still holding Gen’s phone and handed it back with a grin.

‘Let me say it to Laetitia tonight and then I might not need to put up a post at all.’ As she spoke, Gen’s phone pipped with a text. ‘You better check that. I’ll be in Tuesday, leave me a list. Tatty...