Murder in the Storybook Cottage Read online

  Praise for Ellery Adams’s Previous Novels

  Murder in the Locked Library

  “Creating a group of suspects that will keep readers intrigued until the last page, Ellery Adams has proven one thing with this book: this is one series that should and will go on for a long time to come. In fact, the author has done such a brilliant job, readers will find themselves wanting to live in Storyton, no matter how many people end up dead there.”

  —Suspense Magazine

  “Ellery does a wonderful job in capturing the essence of this whodunit with a visually descriptive narrative that not only lends itself to engaging dialogue, but also seeing the action through the eyes of Jane and her fellow characters.”

  —Dru’s Book Musings

  “In Murder in the Locked Library . . . there is a very old pile of bones, an old book buried with the bones, and plenty more bodies are discovered. There are laugh-out-loud moments along with the serious, which makes for a most enjoyable read. Avid readers will keep this novel on their keeper shelves! Ellery Adams is a marvelous writer; she intertwines famous quotes, famous authors, and famous books to create mystery magic.”

  —RT Book Reviews TOP PICK

  The Whispered Word

  “A love letter to reading, with sharp characterizations and

  a smart central mystery.”

  —Entertainment Weekly

  The Secret, Book & Scone Society

  “Adams launches an intriguing new mystery series, headed by four spirited amateur sleuths and touched with a hint of magical realism, which celebrates the power of books and women’s friendships. Adams’s many fans, readers of Sarah Addison Allen, and anyone who loves novels that revolve around books will savor this tasty treat.”

  —Library Journal (starred review), Pick of the Month

  “Adams kicks off a new series featuring strong women, a touch of romance and mysticism, and both the cunning present-day mystery and the slowly revealed secrets of the intriguing heroines’ pasts.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “This affecting series launch from Adams provides all the best elements of a traditional mystery . . . Well-drawn characters complement a plot with an intriguing twist or two.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Adams’s new series blends magical realism, smart women, and small-town quirks to create a cozy mystery that doubles as a love letter to books. Readers will fall in love with Nora’s bookstore therapy and Hester’s comfort scones. Not to mention Estella, June, hunky Jed the paramedic, and Nora’s tiny house-slash-converted-train-caboose. . . a book that mystery fans—and avid readers—won’t want to put down until they have savored every last crumb.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  Books by Ellery Adams

  The Secret, Book & Scone Society Mysteries

  The Secret, Book & Scone Society

  The Whispered Word

  The Book of Candlelight

  Book Retreat Mysteries

  Murder in the Mystery Suite

  Murder in the Paperback Parlor

  Murder in the Secret Garden

  Murder in the Locked Library

  Murder in the Reading Room

  Murder in the Storybook Cottage

  MURDER IN THE STORYBOOK COTTAGE

  ELLERY ADAMS

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Praise for Ellery Adams’s Previous Novels

  Books by Ellery Adams

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Welcome to Storyton Hall

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  Teaser chapter

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2020 by Ellery Adams

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4967-1567-8

  ISBN-10: 1-4967-1567-5

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-1568-5 (eBook)

  eISBN-10: 1-4967-1568-3 (eBook)

  This book is for all the parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, babysitters—to anyone who ever read to a child.

  To gift a child with a love of reading is to open a magic door.

  “Obsessed by a fairy tale,

  we spend our lives searching for a magic door

  and a lost kingdom of peace.”

  —Eugene O’Neill

  Welcome to Storyton Hall

  OUR STAFF IS HERE TO SERVE YOU

  Resort Manager—Jane Steward

  Butler—Mr. Butterworth

  Head Librarian—Mr. Sinclair

  Head Chauffeur—Mr. Sterling

  Head of Recreation—Mr. Lachlan

  Head of Housekeeping—Mrs. Templeton

  Head Cook—Mrs. Hubbard

  Spa Manager—Tammie Kota

  SELECT MERCHANTS OF STORYTON VILLAGE

  Run for Cover Bookshop—Eloise Alcott

  Daily Bread Cafe—Edwin Alcott

  Cheshire Cat Pub—Bob and Betty Carmichael

  Canvas Creamery—Phoebe Doyle

  La Grande Dame Clothing Boutique—Mabel Wimberly

  Tresses Hair Salon—Violet Osborne

  Pickled Pig Market—the Hogg brothers

  Geppetto’s Toy Shop—Barnaby Nicholas

  Hilltop Stables—Sam Nolan

  Potter’s Shed—Tom Green

  Storyton Outfitters—Phil and Sandi Hughes

  CHILDREN’S BOOK CONFERENCE ATTENDEES OF NOTE

  Birdie Bloom

  Nia Curry

  Gunnar Humphries

  Sasha Long

  Reggie Novak

  Todd and Tris Petty

  Gloria Ramirez

  THE GOLDEN BOOKMARK WINNERS

  Max Gilbert

  Alika Gilbert

  Fern Gilbert

  Peter Gilbert

  MISCELLANEOUS VISITORS

  Zoey (Mrs. Templeton’s niece)

  Malcolm Marcus (book dealer)

  Dr. Brandon Parks (Gloria Ramirez’s fiancé)

  Chapter One

  Jane
Steward, manager of Storyton Hall, a five-star resort for bibliophiles, distributed Wonka Bars to the members of her book club.

  The Cover Girls examined the chocolate bars in wonder.

  “Are these real?” asked Betty Carmichael. She ran the Cheshire Cat Pub with her husband, Bob, and wasn’t surprised by much.

  Jane smiled. “You can try a bite, but we’re having a full tea spread in a few minutes.”

  Betty put the candy bar in her handbag. “I’ll save mine for later.”

  “A fictional candy bar? As long as it wasn’t made by an Oompa Loompa, I’ll eat it,” Violet Osborne whispered to Anna. Violet owned Tresses, the village beauty salon, while Anna was working on a doctoral degree in pharmacy. Between work and school, she hadn’t attended many book club meetings for the past six months, so her friends were delighted to have her back.

  “If T. S. Eliot dared to eat a peach, then I dare to eat chocolate,” said Eloise Alcott, Jane’s best friend and proprietor of Run for Cover bookstore.

  Mabel Wimberly, who owned a women’s clothing boutique called La Grande Dame, slipped her chocolate bar into the pocket of her fuchsia cardigan. “No need to twist my arm. This will be dessert tonight.” She turned to Mrs. Pratt, the most senior member of the book club and a retired educator. “If you’re not going to eat yours . . .”

  Mrs. Pratt jerked her candy bar out of Mabel’s reach. “If you want mine, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers. I make it a rule never to share men or chocolate.”

  The women laughed.

  Jane peeled off the purple paper label of her chocolate bar and showed her friends the gold foil inside. “The labels were made by a graphic designer specializing in literary designs. Each label has the Storyton Hall logo on the front and a quote from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the back. I hope the kids coming to Storyton for this weekend’s Family Valentine’s Celebration like them. As far as the chocolate? It tastes like a Hershey bar.”

  Eloise turned over her candy bar. “My quote says, ‘What you imagine sometimes comes true.’ I’m pretty sure Grandpa Joe said that. I remember reading the scene where Charlie finds the golden ticket like it was yesterday. I was ten or eleven, and I got so excited that I jumped up and down on my bed. My grandmother came rushing in to see what was going on. She’d never heard of the book, and I begged her to read it when I was done. After that, she read everything I read. Sharing those books brought us closer.”

  Mrs. Pratt put on her reading glasses and studied her label. “The quote on mine is ‘We are all a great deal luckier than we realize.’” She peered at Jane over her glasses. “Isn’t that a bit philosophical for children?”

  Jane shrugged. “Their parents will get chocolate bars too. I want guests of all ages to feel lucky this weekend. Speaking of which, I’m going to put all the goodies for our first Golden Bookmark winners in the Fairy Tale Suite. That way, when the Gilbert family goes into their room, they’ll see all of them at once.”

  “I remember when you first mentioned the Golden Bookmark program,” said Eloise. “The idea of giving a free Storyton Hall vacation to a couple or family who couldn’t afford it is so like you, Jane. It makes me proud to be your friend.”

  Compliments embarrassed Jane, so she smiled and kept talking. “Do you gals want to share your contributions before we have tea?”

  Mabel clapped her hands. “I thought you’d never ask. As soon as you told me about the Storybook Supper, I contacted the Gilberts to find out who their favorite children’s book characters were. After that, I started sewing.”

  As usual, the women were gathered in the living room of Jane’s house. She lived in what had once been the hunting lodge on the original estate. Like the manor house, the hunting lodge had been dismantled from its original seat in the English countryside and rebuilt in a remote, bucolic valley in Western Virginia. The front half of the lodge no longer housed guns and dog kennels, but Storyton Hall’s fleet of vintage Rolls-Royce sedans. The back half was home to Jane and her twin boys. The twins, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, were currently upstairs in their room. Eloise had gifted them with several new comic books, and the boys had raced off to read them.

  Mabel shot a glance toward the stairs before opening the lid of a rubber storage box. “I have the twins’ costumes in here too. I want them to be a surprise, so I’m only showing you what I made for the Gilberts. I think you’ll guess which book they love best.” She pulled a pair of denim overalls and a flannel shirt out of the box. “These are for Max, the dad. Mom’s next. Her name is Alika. Betty, would you grab the other end?”

  Betty helped Mabel hold up a black poncho with a glittering white spiderweb design. Mabel put the poncho aside and pulled out a hat shaped like a spider. The spider had a sweet face. She had two eyes instead of eight, pink cheeks, and a kind smile.

  “If you haven’t figured it out yet, Peter’s outfit will give it away,” said Mabel. She showed the Cover Girls a pink pig costume designed for a young boy.

  “Charlotte’s Web?” Anna guessed.

  Mabel gave her a thumbs-up. “Yep. The daughter, Fern, was named after the little girl in E. B. White’s book. That’s why she has overalls like Uncle Zuckerman, aka Max Gilbert. And I put a rubber rat in the bib pocket of Fern’s overalls. I had to make sure Templeton made it to the party. He’s my favorite character.”

  “Mine too,” said Violet. “Whoever thought a rat could be so likeable?”

  “Mrs. Templeton would disagree,” said Jane, referring to Storyton Hall’s head housekeeper. “Not even a shared surname could save a rat from her broom.”

  The women chortled. They talked about the Gilberts’ costumes, the Charlotte’s Web animated film, and their favorite fair foods until Mabel reclaimed their attention.

  “Both of the Gilbert kids are named after book characters. Alika named Peter after the little boy in The Snowy Day. Alika read it aloud every day of her pregnancy, and when Peter was born, he loved seeing a book character that looked like him. Alika was excited to hear that some of the picture-book conference events are open to the public. The panel on diversity in children’s books is right up her alley.”

  Phoebe pointed at the pig costume. “Wait. You said that Alika named Peter. Not Max and Alika.”

  “The Gilberts are a blended family,” Jane explained. “Fern and Peter are step-siblings. Though they look nothing alike, their parents say that they’re thick as thieves.”

  “And they’re only a year apart, which made it easier to pick out books for them.” Eloise held up a box set of paperbacks. “My contribution is this Roald Dahl set. Fifteen books in total.”

  The book club members complimented Eloise on her choice.

  Phoebe held out an envelope. “Mine’s not very colorful. I have a gift certificate for free drinks and frozen custard.”

  “Don’t worry, Mrs. Pratt and I have the colorful part covered.” Anna gestured at a gift-wrapped package on the coffee table. “We bought a pair of sketch pads and two art sets from Geppetto’s Toy Shop.”

  Betty picked up the basket by her feet. “I have a lovely bottle of merlot and a tin of cheese straws for Max and Alika. The parents can have wine time while the kids have Picasso time.”

  “Where were you when the twins were finger-painting my bedroom walls?” Jane gave Betty a playful nudge. “I could have used a bottle back then. This single mom never had enough wine time.”

  Violet was the last Cover Girl to share her contribution. “I’m offering to do the family’s hair and makeup before the Storybook Supper. If any of you ladies need a special hairstyle to go with your costume, let me know. I’ll add you to my list.”

  All the women spoke at once, eager to talk about their plans for Valentine’s Day.

  “What about Edwin?” Mrs. Pratt asked Jane. “Wouldn’t the two of you rather have an intimate dinner with candlelight and roses? It’s the most romantic day of the year, and you’re going to spend it with a roomful of kids, parents, and people who make children’s
books?”

  Jane got to her feet. “The whole point of the event is to provide an alternative to the candlelight and roses cliché. I’m looking forward to celebrating with my guests, my friends, and my family. As is Edwin. What could be more perfect than a night of good food, whimsical costumes, and a charming play?”

  Mrs. Pratt frowned. She was about to press her point when Jane held up a finger. “I’m going to put out the tea spread. When I’m done, you can tell us about your plans.”

  Someone whistled, and Mrs. Pratt blushed.

  Eloise followed Jane into the kitchen. “I’ll brew the tea while you arrange the food.” She scanned the selection of finger sandwiches and sugary treats. “It’s a good thing I won’t be wearing a swimsuit for another few months. I want one of everything.”

  Jane placed a tray of finger sandwiches at one end of the table. Next came the treats. These included almond scones, white chocolate raspberry macaroons, date cookies, and miniature angel food cupcakes. Eloise added two teapots to the table before returning to the kitchen to fetch teacups and napkins.

  “Teatime, ladies!” Jane called.

  The women filled their cups with winter chai or spiced ginger tea and carried their loaded plates into the living room. As soon as they were settled in chairs or on the sofa, Mrs. Pratt peered at Jane over the rim of her teacup. She wanted to talk about her beau.