Join us for a reading with author Katharine Schellman, who will read from her new mystery novel, Murder at Midnight. A conversation with author Stacie Murphy will follow. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: Perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Ashley Weaver, when a body is found shot to death after an unexpected snowstorm, Lily Adler quickly realizes that some people will stop at nothing to bury their secrets.
Regency widow Lily Adler is looking forward to a quiet Christmastide away from the schemes and secrets she witnessed daily in London. Not only will she be visiting the family of her late husband; she will be reunited with Captain Jack Hartley, her friend and confidante, finally returned after a long voyage at sea.
But secrets aren’t only found in London. Jack’s younger sister, Amelia, is the center of neighborhood scandal and gossip. She refuses to tell anyone what really happened, even when an unexpected snowstorm strands the neighborhood families together after a Christmas ball. Stuck until the snow stops, the Adlers, Hartleys, and their neighbors settle in for the night, only to be awakened in the morning by the scream of a maid who has just discovered a dead body.
The victim was the well-to-do son of a local gentleman—the same man whose name has become so scandalously linked to Amelia’s.
With the snow still falling and no way to come or go, it’s clear that someone in the house was responsible for the young man’s death. When suspicion instantly falls on Jack’s sister, he and Lily must unmask the true culprit before Amelia is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit.
About the Author: Katharine Schellman is a former actor and one-time political consultant. These days, she writes the Lily Adler Mysteries (Crooked Lane Books) and the Nightingale Mysteries (Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press). Her books, which reviewers have praised as “worthy of Agatha Christie or Rex Stout” (Library Journal, starred review), have received multiple accolades, including being named a Library Journal Best Crime Fiction of 2022, a Suspense Magazine Best Book of 2020, and a New York Times editor’s pick in June 2022. Katharine lives and writes in the mountains of Virginia in the company of her husband, children, and the many houseplants she keeps accidentally murdering.
About the Moderator: Stacie Murphy grew up just outside Nashville, Tennessee. She began writing her first novel in 2017 in an attempt to force herself to stay off of Twitter in the evenings. Both that book, A Deadly Fortune, and its sequel, The Unquiet Dead, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly. Her next novel, The Witch’s Secret, is coming in the spring of 2024. Murphy lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, daughter, and two spoiled cats.
Murder at Midnight will be released on September 19. To order the book, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Delightful...Historical mystery fans will devour this holiday treat."
—Publishers Weekly
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