Victorian Village Mystery

Katherine Hamilton's goal in high school was to escape from her dead-end hometown of Asheboro, Maryland. Fifteen years later she's got a degree in hospitality management and a great job at a high-end boutique hotel in Baltimore. Until, that is, the hotel is acquired by a chain, and she's laid off. When Kate's high school best friend calls with a mysterious invitation to come talk with the town leaders of Asheboro, she agrees to make the trip, curious about where this new opportunity might lead. Once Kate arrives, the town council members reveal that their town is on the verge of going bankrupt, and they've decided that Kate's skills and knowledge make her the perfect person to cure all their ills. The town has used its last available funds to buy the huge Victorian mansion just outside of town, hoping to use it to attract some of the tourists who travel to visit the nearby Civil War battle sites. Kate has less-than-fond memories of the mansion, for personal reasons, but to make matters worse, the only person who has presented a possible alternate plan is Cordelia Walker-Kate's high school nemesis. But a few days later, while touring the mansion, Kate stumbles over a body-and it's none other than Cordelia.

The second book in the Victorian Village Mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly! After fifteen years away, Kate Hamilton never expected to end up back in her hometown of Asheboro, Maryland full time. And she definitely didn't expect to be leading the charge of recreating the town as a Victorian village and tourist attraction. But as unexpected as the circumstances are, Kate is ready to tackle them. The town, on the other hand, is going to take some convincing. Ever since Henry Barton's shovel factory closed down, it's started to seem like there are more tumbleweeds than tourists rolling down Main Street. Kate's ideas are good, but ambitious-and her friends and neighbors are worried that finding the money for them would push the town even further into debt. Luckily, Kate and the handsome historian Joshua Wainwright are two very determined people who may have come up with a solution. The Barton mansion, meant to be the centerpiece of the Victorian village, has proven to be a veritable goldmine of documents about the town's nineteenth-century history, and Kate is convinced the papers hide something of value. When a dead body turns up in the town library-mere hours before the documents were meant to arrive there themselves-Kate begins to worry that the papers spell danger instead of dollars. It seems that someone doesn't want these forgotten secrets coming to light, and they'll do whatever it takes to keep Kate quiet...

Kate Hamilton is feeling good about her plans to recreate Asheboro, Maryland as the Victorian town it once was. Even two recent murders aren't enough to discourage her: after she helped to solve them, she put them behind her. Now comes the time to make real plans, and her first goal is to renovate the Barton Mansion on the outskirts of town. Luckily, it's been maintained in good condition in the century since the wealthy Henry Barton lived and died there. But when the contractor gets started, he discovers a staircase that had been walled in years earlier. And of course, given the way Kate's luck has been going, there's a body on the stairs. After the first shock, Kate is relieved when the autopsy reveals that the man had died around 1880. Unfortunately, it also reveals that he had not died a natural death-he had been murdered. So Kate and Carroll Peterson, who Kate had drafted to sort through Henry Barton's papers, start a hunt to identify the man and why he died at the Barton Mansion. But when a second body is found-this time from the present day-Kate realizes that someone may not be so keen on her digging up the past . . .