A Treacherous Tale * Elizabeth Penney * Cambridge Bookshop #2

The Chilling, Cambridge Mystery of Vintage Children’s Literature and Fatal Plummets. A quaint, idyllic afternoon at a charming English countryside cottage violently derails into an agonizing psychological puzzle. In this beautifully structured, highly atmospheric second installment of the acclaimed series, author Elizabeth Penney strips away polite academic pleasantries to deliver a gripping, high-utility portrait of literary secrets. The narrative follows Molly Kimball, a sharp former American librarian who has recently relocated across the Atlantic to help reinvigorate her family's historic, generations-old bookstore, Thomas Marlowe—Manuscripts and Folios, nestled in the heart of Cambridge, England. Molly’s world is momentarily enchanted when she gets the rare opportunity to visit her nearby neighbor, Iona York—the legendary author behind the beloved vintage children's classic, The Strawberry Girls.The cozy atmosphere instantly evaporates into absolute gridlock when an old acquaintance of the author unexpectedly plummets from the cottage roof to his death right before Molly's eyes. The tragedy escalates into a frantic, high-stakes investigation when one of Iona’s adult daughters—who served as the original real-life inspiration for characters in The Strawberry Girls—vanishes completely into thin air. As standard bureau avenues stall, Molly launches an independent, parallel tracking operation. She untangles a treacherous landscape of long-buried scandals, evaluating if the suspicious death of Iona's co-author husband decades prior is systematically linked to the current body count. Fusing realistic bookshop mechanics with rapid-fire witty banter, lighthearted romantic elements, and a complex puzzle, this compelling whodunit tracks a breathless race to unmask a brilliant . Fusing realistic bookshop mechanics with rapid-fire witty banter, lighthearted romantic elements, and a complex puzzle, this compelling whodunit tracks a breathless race to unmask a brilliant predator before a sweet childhood tale turns permanently sour. 

First published on August 23, 2022 by St. Martin's Paperbacks / Macmillan Publishers