NEW SLAIN KNIGHT

A summer holiday in glorious Cornwall turns into a ghost-plagued nightmare.

Talented musician Ringan Laine and his theatrical producer and longtime lover Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes have to change their vacation plans when a family emergency leaves them with Ringan’s niece Rebecca, a violin virtuoso. Ringan knows that lodgings in Cornwall, Penny’s destination of choice, will be hard to find, but a call to his old friend and fellow musician Gowan Camborne garners them rooms in his cottage. An invitation to play with Gowan’s group shows off Becca’s amazing talent. But during their rehearsal performance of Gowan’s favorite folk song, Penny, a conduit for spirits of the past (Cruel Sister, 2006, etc.), is overtaken by spectral insights into a bloody crime of long ago. Worse, she realizes that Becca is getting the same messages. When Gowan insists on playing the song at their gig, Becca has a seizure during the performance. Gowan admits that Becca looks like the love of his life, who hanged herself at his house, but the ghostly visitors are clearly more ancient members of his family. The intrepid band must identify the spirits in order to save Becca and Penny from ever more dangerous contact with a fatal history that won’t stay dead.

Even those who don’t believe in ghosts will enjoy this illuminating window into the past, complete with musical and historical tidbits.