The Curse of Penryth Hall

1922. Since the Great War, Ruby Vaughn has made a life for herself running a rare bookshop alongside octogenarian Mr Owen. She thought that she had consigned painful memories of Penryth Hall, deep in the Cornish countryside, to the distant past. Returning to the hall, home to a once dear friend, Tamsyn, leads Ruby to cross paths with Tamsyn's sinister husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. Desperate to leave, Ruby's plans are thwarted when Penryth's bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward has been brutally killed in the orchard prompting fears that a dormant curse has been awoken. The Pellar, Ruan Kivell, is summoned. The locals believe that this unsettling man can break the curse. Sceptical Ruby doesn't believe in curses or Pellars but to protect her friend, she must work alongside him to find out what really happened that night.

Jess Armstrong's debut novel The Curse of Penryth Hall won the Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur First Crime Novel Competition. She has a master's degree in American History but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Armstrong lives in New Orleans.