Kathy Shuker - Free Library Land Online

That Still andWhispering Place

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 10:56:58 +0200

Bohenna is a small Cornish village, dominated by a thriving vineyard and the Pennyman family who run it. It’s an insular community, all gossip and rumour and intertwined lives. Claire knows everyone; she grew up there. She even married into the Pennyman family.

Every summer tourists swarm over the vineyard and village. So when Claire’s young daughter disappears without trace, it’s obvious to everyone that a visitor took her. Who else would do such a thing?

Six years later, her marriage broken, Claire still struggles to accept what happened. She’s been away but she’s back now - and increasingly convinced her daughter never left the village at all.

But it’s not wise to start asking questions. Old resentments run deep and not everyone is pleased to see Claire back in Bohenna.

A Crack in the Varnish

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 08:01:17 +0300

Hollywood actress, Esther Langley, has a home in the hills of Provence, an old converted abbey where she keeps her precious art collection. Now she has four paintings in need of restoration: one modern work, fire-damaged, and three crumbling old masters. It looks like a straightforward job for an experienced art restorer like Hannah Dechansay, and who wouldn't relish a few months in Provence?

But living and working on Esther's estate isn't easy. It's a tortured household, haunted by a tragic death. There's guilt and recrimination in the air and relationships soon start to unravel. Was the death an accident? Everyone has a different version to tell. There's something sinister going on and everyone, it seems, has something to hide.

A Crack in the Varnish is the first of the Dechansay Bright Mysteries but is a complete story and can be read in isolation.

The Angel Downstairs

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 08:01:18 +0300

Some people never tell the truth. They daren't.

Eric Dechansay is a successful artist with a popular studio in Paris, the life and soul of every party. Then the threatening letters start. Eric's past - and someone he thought was dead - have come back to haunt him.

Hannah Dechansay knows nothing of her father's past but a phone call from her half-sister has her leaving Oxford and on a plane to Paris. She won't be welcome. Eric's carefully constructed life is crashing around his ears and Hannah's determination to find out why will only make things worse. Her father's clearly frightened and he's lying. And then there's the piano player. Who is he anyway?

As the stakes rise inexorably higher, who can Hannah trust?

Each of the Dechansay Bright Mysteries is a standalone story.

The Silence Before Thunder

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 10:56:59 +0200

It's midsummer and the annual writing workshops are about to begin at the sprawling Devon home of novelist Eleanor Lambe. A motley crew of old friends arrive to act as tutors including her former lover, the poet Frank Marwell, and his new fiancée. There's rivalry and tension in the air.

That same night, Eleanor falls from her clifftop garden and lies in hospital, damaged, silent. Her niece, Jo, arrives to sit at her bedside, confused and upset. They're saying that Eleanor jumped, her romantic and professional life in tatters, but that's not the feisty woman that Jo knew. And Eleanor's home holds too many memories for her, both good and bad. But someone knows more than they are saying and Jo is determined to find out who.

A sensitively told and compelling mystery, infused with vivid characters, heartache, loss and a dash of humour.

Silent Faces, Painted Ghosts

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 10:56:57 +0200

"Heaps of mystery and intrigue, a nice love story, and a great plot. Shuker is truly a gifted storyteller."

Terri is a talented art curator, stagnating in a dead end job in London. Her ex-boyfriend, Oliver, is stalking her. A post curating the retrospective of a famous but reclusive artist seems the perfect escape. Portrait painter, Peter Stedding, lives in the mountains of Provence, in a house he shares with his wife, daughter and eccentric sister, Celia. The setting is idyllic; the atmosphere is not. Peter is rude and obstructive, his household strained and silent.

The place holds secrets, stories no-one is allowed to tell, dark echoes of the past. Looking through Peter's old paintings, Terri finds a tantalising clue and soon she is caught up in a cat and mouse game in search of the truth. But whose past is she searching for? And whose hides the darkest shadows?

365 pages in print

By a Hand Unknown

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 08:01:19 +0300

It's 1991 and Ranling Manor, set among the wild and watery Norfolk Broads, has been home to the Gyllam-Spence family for generations. Open to the public and family-run, its valuable art collection is decaying and conservators Hannah and Nathan arrive to restore its most fragile works.

But underneath the apparent gentility, the Gyllam-Spence family is at war with itself. And someone is stealing from the collection, someone all too close to home. When a body turns up floating in the nearby lake, it seems the stakes have risen to a new high. The police might deem it an accident; Nathan doesn't.

As the family closes ranks, Nathan and Hannah bury their differences and join forces to find out who is responsible. But they will have to be both devious and extremely careful...

By a Hand Unknown is the second in the Dechansay Bright Mysteries but is a complete story and can be read in isolation.