The curse of Penryth Hall

Jess Armstrong

Large print - 2024

"After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and housemate in Exeter. She's always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it seems to have a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she'd never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall. A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby's once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edwa...rd Chenowyth. It's an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth's bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn't believe in curses -- or Pellars -- but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn. To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night."--

Saved in:

1st Floor Show me where

LARGE PRINT/MYSTERY/Armstrong, Jess
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
1st Floor LARGE PRINT/MYSTERY/Armstrong, Jess Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Gothic fiction
Large print books
Published
Thorndike, Maine : Center Point Large Print 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Jess Armstrong (author)
Edition
Center Point Large Print edition
Item Description
Regular print version previously published by St. Martin's Publishing Group.
Physical Description
423 pages (large print) ; 23 cm
ISBN
9798891640139
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Ruby Vaughn, an American heiress with a scandalous past, has found a new, quiet life in England after having worked as an ambulance driver in WWI. When her employer, a rare-books dealer, asks her to deliver a box of books to a friend who lives in Cornwall, she finds herself revisiting an area that she swore she would never see again. She brings the books to Ruan Kivell, a folk healer the locals call the Pellar. Then she decides to visit an old friend, Tamsyn, whom she lost touch with when Tamsyn married Edward Chenowyth, the lord of Penryth Hall. Ruby soon learns Edward is abusive. When the bells of Penryth Hall ring after years of silence, they announce the discovery of Edward's body, and everyone assumes that the curse of Penryth Hall has struck. They call the Pellar to break the curse. Ruby does not believe in curses, but she works with Ruan to investigate the gruesome death. They soon discover a sinister web of broken relationships and corruption. Readers who enjoy historical fiction with a touch of gothic and noir will find this tale compelling.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Armstrong's engrossing debut begins in Devon, England, shortly after WWI, as American expat and bookseller Ruby Vaughn is sent by her employer to deliver a trunkful of rare volumes to a folk healer in a small Cornish village. While there, Ruby visits her estranged friend and former lover Tamsyn Chenowith, who left Ruby to marry Edward, the wealthy lord of Penryth Hall. Trapped in an unhappy marriage with Edward, Tamsyn wants to reconnect with Ruby, but their reunion takes a dark turn when Edward is found murdered in Penryth's orchard, his face gruesomely disfigured. Locals are sure Edward's death is the work of a mysterious curse that has plagued Penryth Hall for years, and Tamsyn fears she'll be the next victim. Ruby teams up with Ruan Kivell, the town "pellar," or witch, whose books she was supposed to deliver, to solve the mystery before anyone else dies; in the process, she sheds her skepticism of all things supernatural. Ruby is a wonderful concoction, world-weary and reckless, and Armstrong outfits her with a moody, gripping mystery that keeps the pages turning. If, in the end, she leaves one too many plot threads dangling, it's a small quibble. Fans of Gothic-flavored suspense will devour this. (Dec.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT Winner of the Mystery Writers of America First Novel Crime Award, Armstrong's entrancing historical debut delivers an elegantly crafted, supernatural-tinged plot that evokes the best of Barbara Michaels, with nods to Conan Doyle's The Hound of Baskervilles. Superbly rendered characters include a plucky protagonist whom Maisie Dobbs would be proud to claim as a friend and an evocative sense of place reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier at her best. Ostensibly in Cornwall to deliver some antiquarian books, Ruby Vaughn has a real motive, to check in on her old friend Tamsyn. But Tamsyn, now the wife of Sir Edward Chenowyth and mistress of Penryth Hall, is no longer the vibrant girl Ruby knew during the Great War. Tempted to chalk up the changes in Tamsyn to Edward (who is a bully if not worse), Ruby thinks it's a blessing in disguise when Edward is found dead. But then everyone in the village claims that his death is the result of the Penryth Curse, and Tamsyn insists that she and her young son will be the next targets. VERDICT Readers who like their historical mysteries embellished with plenty of gothic ambience and enhanced with an abundance of dry wit will adore this splendid debut.--John Charles

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Armstrong's debut, set in 1922 in the Cornish countryside, channels The Hound of the Baskervilles as her heroine wonders if a curse is actually to blame for a real-life murder. Ruby Vaughn, who works for a seller of old and rare books in Exeter, walks into a scandal when she goes to a village called Lothlel Green to deliver a box of books to Ruan Kivell, who's known to the locals as the Pellar. As far as Ruby can tell, that means he's "more or less some type of arcane Cornish exorcist....[A] cross between a physician, a witch, and a priest," but that's not to say she isn't intrigued. Ruan is a mystery within a mystery; the second time Ruby meets him, she thinks: "This wasn't the charming man I'd seen only yesterday...No. He had thunder on his face, and there was something different about him. Something untamed, uncivilized, and entirely terrifying." While in Lothlel Green, Ruby reunites with Tamsyn, her old love, who's been living there in Penryth Hall since she married Sir Edward Chenowyth and had a son. When Edward dies mysteriously and Ruby is nearly killed herself, she learns about the Curse of Penryth Hall, where the Chenowyth family lives. Years ago, a jilted woman foolishly asked a local witch for help winning back the heart of her lover, a Chenowyth ancestor who'd married a barmaid, and "the witch set a curse upon the Chenowyth line vowing revenge. She killed the faithless heir and his young bride, removing his inconstant heart and delivering it to his betrothed in a silver box." Ruby is not sure she believes in curses, but she knows that Edward was not a faithful husband and likely has many enemies. Tamsyn isn't too broken up about Edward's death, but she'll do anything to protect her son from becoming the next victim of the curse, and she needs Ruby's help. Romance and danger lurk in every corner of this spooky estate. The folklore in the story is charming, and the characters treat it with reverence even while searching for a human killer. An intriguing and altogether enchanting mystery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.