This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, Local History Librarian at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library.

This week we are featuring serial fiction in our New Large Print collection.

The latest by Jess Armstrong featuring American heiress Ruby Vaughn is called “The Secret of the Three Fates.” Ruby has yet to forgive her employer and housemate Mr. Owen for bringing the occult into their lives during a recent trip to Cornwall. When he says that their latest journey to Manhurst Castle in the Scottish Borders is simply to appraise and obtain illuminated manuscripts, Ruby doesn’t completely buy it. Once there, Ruby discovers that there are no manuscripts and that a séance is to be held that night, so naturally she is suspicious about the real reason they have come. The Great War left too many families grieving for loved ones, and Mr. Owen is no exception. He desperately wants to speak to his son, but he can’t bear to face the spirits alone. The trio of mediums performing the séance bill themselves as The Three Fates, but as the night activities begin to unravel, Mr. Owens secrets threaten to reveal a history that he has\ been running from his whole life. When Ruby finds one of the Three Fates murdered, she and Mr. Owen quickly become suspects. They engage the help of folk healer Ruan Kivell to help clear their names.

 

“High Tea and Misdemeanors” is the latest Tea Shop Mystery from Laura Childs. Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, are asked to cater for the fashionable wedding of Bettina and Jamie; they accept. As Theodosia and Drayton are setting things up, they hear a crash from the greenhouse. To their dismay, they discover that part of the roof has collapsed trapping the bride and groom beneath. The groom will pull through, but the bride doesn’t make it. As Theodosia hosts an Under the Tuscan Sun tea and a Victorian Halloween Tea, she continues to search for the greenhouse murderer and saboteur. And eventually finds herself deep in a low country swamp where she stumbles upon a deserted sawmill and a merciless killer desperate for revenge.

The first book in Andrea Christenson’s Fox Family series is titled “How Sweet It Is.” Robin Fox is living her dream in Paris working at a gourmet bakery. She thought she would live there forever, but her relationship with her boss went awry and her dreams crumbled. She is now back home in Deep Haven, Minnesota and caring for her grandparents’ rundown bakery while they are away. She has made up her mind though that when they come home in six weeks, she’ll trade this ordinary life for the one she left behind in Paris. It’s been nearly two years since the accident that nearly killed Sammy Johnson, and he still feels that he’s not making any headway in his life. He feels little passion for living in Deep Haven, but that starts to change when he offers to help Robin at the bakery. They find themselves working together to keep the bakery afloat and there is more than friendship simmering between them. When the six weeks are up, will Robin go back to Paris, or will she decide to stay in her hometown?

“The Wagtail Murder Club” is the tenth entry in Krista Davis’s Paws and Claws Mystery series. Holly Miller is on her way home when she spots an adorable black Labrador in a cage not far from her car. The note attached to his collar says, “My name is Squishy. I am a very good boy. Please take good care of me.” She brings him home to the Sugar Maple Inn which she co-owns with her grandmother, the mayor of Wagtail. Holly’s ex-boyfriend, Ben, shows up checking in on his attorney colleagues who seem to be under the impression that the two are still together. Squishy and Holly’s mischievous dog and cat stumble upon one of Ben’s attorney friends who has died in a non-accidental fall. With the help of her mom, grandmother, and the inn’s elderly butler, Mr. Huckle, Holly sets out to root out the killer and the truth about Squishy.

The latest in Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery series is called “The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime.” Gemma Dole and her friends are packed up and heading to London for her sister Pippa’s wedding. Gemma’s ex-husband, Paul, meets her in the hotel lobby  and says that he has a rare book he wants her to see. She agrees to meet him at their old bookshop the following day, but when she arrives with Grant, a rare book dealer, they find Paul dead in his office. The valuable book he wanted her to see is nowhere to be found in the shop. Gemma feels the need to find Paul’s killer, so she and her best friend, Jayne, track his friends, enemies, clients, and ex-lovers from London to Yorkshire. Turns out Paul’s last days are more twisted than she could have imagined.

The latest thriller by Robert Dugoni featuring Seattle attorney Keera Duggan is called “Beyond Reasonable Doubt.” Jenna Bernstein is the disgraced CEO of a controversial biotech company who has been accused of murdering her former partner and lover, so she turns to Keera to defend her. Keera and Jenna were friends in childhood, so Keera knows where Jenna goes, trouble follows. Keera saw Jenna for what she was: a manipulative, frightening sociopath. Five years earlier, it was Keera’s father defending Jenna when she was accused of killing her company’s chief scientist who had threatened to go public with allegations of corporate fraud. As the investigation heats up, disturbing questions come to light and Keera must put her trust in a client who swears that she is telling nothing but the truth. If this is another of Jenna’s devious games, then Keera may be working to set a murderer free.