Bracebridge Mystery Series

The dead tell no tales….

It is the summer of 1765, and Charlotte Willett is enjoying the balmy languor of Bracebridge with her cultured neighbor, Richard Longfellow. But their peaceful routine shatters with the arrival of Richard’s elegant friend from abroad.

Known as Il Colombo–the Dove–Gian Carlo Lahte is an Italian singer who soon holds the local ladies spellbound. Not even Charlotte is immune to his charms. Though he seems to carry more than a hint of scandal with him, on the day he arrives tavern talk in Bracebridge turns to a more homegrown mystery: a corpse found on the Boston road–his body reeking of liquor, his identity unknown.

Charlotte can’t help but wonder why Signore Lahte is so shaken by the sight of the victim–and why the dead man’s boots and buttons are quickly stolen! As she and Longfellow ponder these matters, further arrivals transform their rustic oasis into a stage for turbulent drama–where any player’s performance could be a deadly swan song….

Lust, deceit, and murder bloom in old New England….

Spring, 1764. While the specter of smallpox stalks colonial Boston, much of the city seeks refuge in the burgeoning countryside. Restful, bucolic Bracebridge is one such haven, and young widow Charlotte Willett and her neighbor Richard Longfellow, scientist and gentleman farmer, host a handful of guests undergoing the generally accepted procedure of inoculation.

Yet shortly after the quarantine begins, one of the patients is found dead and Charlotte and Richard are thrust into a whirl of rumor, conjecture, and fear. What, if not smallpox, caused the patient’s untimely demise? Has the distraught physician in charge something to conceal? And who might have risked contagion to commit murder? Before these questions can be answered, another shocking death occurs.

Now, as some superstitious townsfolk blame both the Pox and the Devil, Charlotte and Richard are determined to follow logic and reason to the all too human source of the problem. But can they arrive at the truth before another victim is claimed?

Witchcraft…or murder?

1763. With the end of the French and Indian War and a new king on England’s throne, it seems the colonies have entered a peaceful and prosperous new era. And though the fashionable ladies of Boston might find Bracebridge altogether too peaceful to be stimulating, young widow Charlotte Willett likes it just as it is. But the calm of the little village is about to be shattered by a wealthy stranger who bursts into flame by the side of the road–and then disappears!

The townspeople begin muttering about witchcraft and the devil’s hand, casting suspicious glances at a local Frenchman. But Charlotte, who has a keen interest in human nature, and her neighbor Richard Longfellow, gentleman farmer and scientist, have more earthly speculations about the merchant’s disappearance. Was it murder, or an elaborate scheme? And, with two mysterious deaths to follow and a tavern full of superstitious rabble, will Charlotte and Longfellow uncover the answers before it’s too late?