A Deadly Shade of Night PDF Download

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1005806861
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 625

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Book Description
How do you take your tea? The Beast of Whitherward Fell has been blamed for a great many mysterious events and gruesome murders on that wildest, perilous stretch of the Yorkshire Moors. But what, or who, is the real monster? And can there be only one that has stalked this place since the beginning of time? Detective Inspector Ptolemy Deverell does not believe in mythical beasts or supernatural phenomena. He’s a quiet, unassuming, pragmatic fellow, who seldom falls prey to emotion. Nobody pulls the fleece over his eyes. So if anybody can shed light on the rampaging fiend behind the bloody history of this place, surely, he can. But when the detective embarks upon three cases at once, he has no idea how tightly they are entwined, or that this tangle will lead him into the darkest part of Whitherward Fell. To face the Beast head-on. With a lady in search of vengeance; a gentleman on a mission for truth, and a little girl waiting for justice, the detective already has his hands full. On top of everything, he— the most unromantic fellow in the world—is in love. Will he ever get around to proposing marriage to the very modern, bicycle-riding, baker-extraordinaire, Miss Lucy Greenwood? And, if he does, will she laugh in his face and try drowning him in raspberry jam? Not only that. A ghost from his own past has returned to haunt his nightmares, and he cannot get on with his life until she’s finally at rest. Tolly Deverell might not believe in the Beast of Whitherward Fell, but he is preyed upon by a scavenging creature that lurks in the bleakest shadows of a dream, waiting to tear him apart. The great shadow of its wingspan falls from above when he is most susceptible. It comes to him when he’s alone in the dark. It comes to him when all but his mind is quiet. It comes in the deadliest shades of night. And with words clawed into the wall, it asks, How do you take your tea?

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370301952
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Venetia Warboys, by most accounts, a mild-mannered, generous, church-going woman, had reached her thirty-fifth year with little out of the ordinary happening in her life. Until she decided, one evening, to rise from her neatly-laid dinner table, fetch an axe from the woodshed, chop her husband into pieces and bake his gristle into some pies. "That's the last time he'll criticize mypastry," she said calmly when apprehended in the act of selling her grisly wares. Although her husband had been an infamous philanderer— or as much of one as an oily, simpering blob of a man could be in a small, rural market town—nobody knew what had really happened, on that last day, to cause a deadly fissure in his wife's sanity. I was the only soul to whom she gave any clue, but the six words she once whispered into my ear left me, a girl of twelve at the time, with more questions than answers. Suffice to say, after Venetia's axe swinging rampage in the autumn of 1882, the men of Withering Gibbet took greater care of what they said and did to their wives. We had all learned some important lessons: everybody harbors dark truths; there is no such thing as "ordinary", and never buy a savory pie at the county fair, especially when the contents are described as "revelation meat". For many years Venetia was our town's sole claim to infamy. And then there was me. * * * * So begins a story of silence and noise, secrets and lies, sisters and lovers, murder and redemption. Gemma Groot grows up in the long shadow cast by an old sin, but she is about to step out of the dark and shine the light on a few startling truths about her family. With the help of a man who falls out of the sky, she will finally discover the strength she needs to revisit the past and unleash the spirit of a wronged woman. But will she find that some skeletons are better off left buried?

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463423518
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
He was once a boy abandoned, left to make his own way in the world. She was a girl stifled by the demands of her family and constrained by the strict customs of Victorian society; a bird caged and without hope. Raised in two disparate worlds, with one fortune rising while the other tumbled, they might never have known each other. But when a disreputable old rogue dies unexpectedly and in spectacular, explosive style, a chain of remarkable events is destined to draw these two strangers close— to the bemusement of one and the disgust of the other. The last Will and Testament of Sir Mungo Lightfoot Mayferry McClumphy has gone astray, and a large number of claimants are fighting over a vast fortune. She wants nothing to do with it, her grieving heart bereft of hope. He is in the thick of it, a man of ruthless perseverance and— in her eyes— a dark, mercenary, unfeeling heart. Drawn together one Christmas, these two “Mortal Enemies” will have to find a way to put aside the strife and be civil. Whether or not they can survive the season remains to be seen. If they also find hope and love along the way, it will surely be a Christmas miracle.

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370122438
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Do you believe in witches? Adam Wyatt will tell you that he certainly doesn't believe. He's the solemn, sensible blacksmith of Slowly Fell and he keeps his distance from females entirely for his own tranquility of mind, not out of any fear of mischievous magic. In his opinion, the great number of souls lost forever to the village pond can be blamed on carelessness and unlucky accident; nothing to do with a witch’s curse. The Dowager Lady Bramley, widow of the local squire, also denies a belief in witchcraft. Or ghosts. Although she's lately enjoyed long discussions with her dear departed husband, who is intent on luring her to Slowly Fell, a place that haunts her dreams—a village with a macabre history, and a connection to her family that she would rather not remember. Admiral Wetherby did not believe in witches either, until madness caused him to burn down his house and all his possessions, sending himself up in smoke with it. And now his daughter, practical, level-headed survivor, Sarah Wetherby, arriving in Slowly Fell to look after the vicar's sick wife, doesn't know what to think about witches. She is not a young woman prone to fanciful ideas, but she loves a good mystery, and there is certainly something going on in Slowly Fell. Sarah has begun to suspect that she's lived here before. Certain sights around the village are familiar— the house where a reclusive old woman resides in grand, but lonely splendor; the pond where a family of accused witches once met their deaths in the ducking-stool, and even the gruff manners of that handsome bachelor blacksmith seem to her familiar as old friends. Or something more. But in Slowly Fell, nothing and nobody is quite what they seem.

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463990293
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Slowly Rising is a house that slumbers with one eye open—a lantern that flickers with watchful amber flame in a second floor window. But like a cat hunched before a mouse hole, it is never fully and deeply asleep. Just pretending. Once in a while it stretches; its tail languidly unfurls to give a single, sultry sweep from side to side before it lies still again. With an ear to the wall you can hear the wattle and daub vibrating with a low, throbbing purr. The woman who sings in the walls of the house is waiting. * * * * Amalie McKenna, the new lady's maid at Slowly Rising, is ambitious, hard-working and devoted to her job. Nothing can distract her and she has no time for mischief. This house might have a macabre history and more than a few wayward spirits, but Amalie is unimpressed. The supernatural has been a part of her world since before she was born and there's not much left that can surprise her, or make her heart beat faster. Gideon Jones has also come to Slowly Rising with a job to do. Unlike anything she's ever encountered before, he's a straightforward, plain-speaking, fearless cockney with rough edges and an irrepressible smile. He claims to be an ordinary valet, but Amalie doesn't believe that for a minute. Because nothing that lives within the walls of Slowly Rising is quite what it seems. * * * * Despite their differences, there is one thing the house's residents have in common: they're brave souls who came on a long journey, ready for adventure. And if they are bold enough to ignore the warning scratched into the doorframe, the menacing sentry of crows, and rumors of a man once scared to death within, then they're welcome to stay a while. At their own risk. Now the woman who sings in the walls of the house waits for you. Are you ready to step inside?

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463857852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home… Ten years ago, at ‘The Brindle Horse’ Hotel, Amarinda Siddaway ran barefoot out of the fog, with a bloody knife in her hand and a children’s rhyme on her lips. Tangled with rumors of lurid scandal, an illicit love affair with a young man a dozen years her junior, and a missing corpse, the mystery of Mrs. Siddaway seemed destined never to be solved. Tried for murder and acquitted, the scarlet woman disappeared from the world just as thoroughly as her alleged victim. But was she truly innocent, or did she get away with murder? Now, a decade later, a very similar crime has been committed, once again at the same hotel. Can it be nothing more than simple coincidence that several characters involved in the first incident are present at the scene of the second? Another woman with a bloody weapon in her hand; another nursery rhyme, and another missing dead man. Some folk might think that old ghosts are to blame. Or is it the ladybirds again? A spinning weathervane on a boathouse roof points in turn to all four directions of the compass. And four letters, sealed with red wax, stamped with the image of a ladybird, are out in the world, linking both crimes with a curious, winding chain. And there is only one man with the patience and wisdom to unwind it. Only one man can connect the clues and stop that weathervane spinning. Detective Inspector Deverell is not fond of coincidences or the supernatural. But whatever is going on at ‘The Brindle Horse’, he’ll get to the bottom of it. Fortunately, he has the eager amateur sleuth and creator of remarkable cakes, Miss Lucy Greenwood, to help him out.

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370739710
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
When Emma Chance met her best friend's elder brother, she knew instantly that he needed somebody to put the bounce back in his boots. But it couldn't be her, of course. She wouldn't know where to start. Against the odds, Emma Chance survived a childhood of cruelty and neglect. She's never had time for fairytales or Prince Charming and, as a young woman with a logical mind, her preference is for tidy facts over messy feelings. But with one glance from his dark eyes, Captain Guy Hathaway causes poor Emma a bundle of the latter and turns her cautious world on its head. To him she is nothing more than his little sister's shy, awkward friend, and she wouldn't know what to do with herself, in any case, if he ever looked at her as anything more than that. But there's something about Captain Hathaway... * * * * The charismatic captain has a reputation for trouble. Brawls, duels and dangerous women litter his past. With a mischievous sense of humor, a hot temper and a reckless impulse to leap in with both feet, he has always sailed along at a steady clip, determined never to be anchored too long in one place and never risking his heart. But lately he's felt a strange emptiness, a yearning for something he cannot identify. It began a few years ago, about the time he escorted his younger sister and two of her friends to a ball. Did he lose something there, or did he find it? Until he gets to the bottom of this mystery, he knows he won't be whole again. In the meantime, while he seeks out the source of this discontent, he can make himself useful, initiate some changes in his life and do a few good deeds for once. Why not? For instance—timid, plain little Miss Chance, his sister's droopy best friend, could surely benefit from a helping hand. The first time he met her she was a mess of nerves, covered in a red rash and itching as if riddled with fleas. But he can't help feeling there is more to the strange creature than meets the eye. Yes, indeed, there is something about Emma Chance...

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463224701
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
“I have seen the day I am to die. And I have seen the man who will murder me— he who will, one day, snuff out my flame. It is an odd thing to foresee one’s departure from life and the face of the man with the means to bring it about. I can only hope I have some time yet before he comes to find me. But what is worse: knowing one’s fate in advance and worrying over it, at the cost of all present and possible joys, or being ignorant of what is to come and waking each day without that cloud above; to be allowed excitement without restriction; to live without limitation, until the very end?” So writes Truzia Crollalanza inside me: her diary. She had a vision, you see, and she knows the face of her cursed enemy as well as she knows her own reflection. And that is before they ever meet in person. Unfortunately for Truzia, this man—the harbinger of her doom— turns out to be far more amusing and tempting company than she expected. Her life, and her death, are about to become complicated. *** In Renaissance Venice, the sisters Crollalanza are raised by their mother to walk with their heads high, question everything, settle for nothing and always fight for justice. But as women ahead of their time, they are curiosities to their gossiping neighbors, and a dangerous— even deadly— menace to the men who would control them. Some claim these prideful women keep dark secrets and strange customs. In their presence, more than one flying flower pot has struck a man’s head. Entirely, it seems, by its own power, without the ladies’ hands being seen to propel it. They ought to be stopped; their outspoken ways must be suppressed, before other women are encouraged to rebellion. Everybody knows the world is best managed by men. But these eccentric females are determined to manage their own affairs, including love, magic and vengeance. Now they embark upon a journey to a new land, a new life, and it’s wise not to get in their way. You might find yourself trapped in the privy, thrashed about the kneecaps by a flying ladle, or elf-locked by an inexplicable desire. All this wickedness you will find confessed within me: the youngest sister’s diary. If you can believe what you read within my pages. She does, after all, enjoy story-telling, games and trickery. Here, in this new country, she tries to outrun the fate she long ago foresaw, while living every moment she has left to its fullest. And I, her diary, try to keep up with it all, in… The Partially Comical and Oft-Times Tragical History of Three Sisters and a truffle pig, told with select examples of drollery, dignified into scenes by way of dialogue, arranged for the pleasure and benefit of all curious persons. Modernized, henceforth, in spelling and punctuation. The main of it translated, for better or worse. The like never before published (mayhap with reason sound, if good profit be the aim).

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463483057
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 501

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Book Description
He's been sent from Scotland Yard to solve a case of blackmail in the Yorkshire Dales; she's just opened her own business in York baking bespoke cakes. He wants a peaceful life; she's aiming for revolution. He likes to keep both feet on the ground; she dreams of scandalizing the neighborhood on a bicycle. He prefers to fade in with the wallpaper; she's proud to be a black sheep that stands out in the crowd. He's never getting married again—most women ought to be stamped on the forehead with a danger warning and clapped into handcuffs. She thinks men are simply an obstacle to her ambitions and if it's true that the way to a man's heart is through his digestive system, that explains why a great deal of gaseous waste frequently finds its path out of the wrong end. The two of them might appear to be mismatched flavors in an unlikely recipe, but when blackmail turns to murder, it's the start of a remarkable partnership in crime-solving. And a match made in chocolate. It's late Victorian England and the world may be on the cusp of change, but is it quite ready for this pairing? They're not even prepared for it themselves. Nevertheless, some wayward kind of chemistry keeps drawing them together and it can't be blamed entirely on the cake. Or the corpse in the conservatory.

Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1005210446
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
It is Christmas 1892, and the toffee hammer of sweet destiny is about to fall upon the most unlikely hero and heroine who ever graced a love story. * * * Tuppence Sparrow works in her father’s confectionery shop, where everything has stayed much the same for half a century; where creaky floors and tilting shelves are all part of its whimsical charm. Like the shop, Miss Sparrow has some wonky traits, but she holds her tongue, minds her own business, seldom smiles, and certainly never encourages the attentions of scandalous men. At least, not in this lifetime. But to help her days go by, Tuppence imagines herself into other lives, and into a world where she is bold, brave and reckless. A world far from the sleepy village of Hunsford Green, and a universe away from the very proper man she is one day expected to marry. Trouble is, she can no longer be sure which of her nine lives is the real one, and if she doesn’t stop day-dreaming she just might lose them all. * * * Unlike Miss Sparrow, the man with whom she is about to collide, has lived only one life, and he’s flown through it by the seat of his breeches. When he’s wearing any. The scandal papers are full of his exploits: from a naked swim in the Serpentine after a lost wager, to airing his buttocks before an outraged countess, who called him an “uncouth American upstart”. He is a man at whom a notorious fille de joie once threw her stockings, forcing him to win a boxing match with the dainty, silk-trimmed articles still draped over his head. Calamity and chaos have stalked our dubious hero for thirty-two years, although, as he would be the first to admit, his antics have often “seemed like a good idea at the time.” Now he’s trying very hard to fix his wrongs; to set himself upright at last and settle down. Unfortunately, well-behaved females rarely interest Hazard Deverell, and as much as he believes in fate, his own has not been very kind to him. But a strange encounter has unleashed his sweet tooth, and convinced him that a woman with the face of a disappointed gravestone angel will be his saving grace. If only he can persuade her likewise. It’s thirteen days to Christmas-- unlucky for some, but he prefers odd numbers. And peculiar women.