THICKER THAN WATER

Genealogist and small-town advocate Torie O’Shea (Blood Relations, 2003, etc.) confronts the unexpected complications of her new life as an heiress.

When her mentor, Sylvia Pershing, dies at the ripe old age of 102 and leaves Torie the Gahiemer House, headquarters of the New Kassel (Mo.) Historical Society, plus her substantial personal wealth, sorting through Sylvia’s numerous papers and possessions isn’t Torie’s only challenge. The members of the Historical Society, jealous of her inheritance, mount a coup to oust her as president. But Torie is even more disturbed by the implications of an old postcard she finds among Sylvia’s possessions. It has a photograph of a little girl on the front and the words “I think you have forgotten your promise” written on the back. Sylvia wasn’t always pleasant, but would she truly have abandoned a little girl? And whose little girl was she? In the meantime, she learns of a private detective who had been secretly (read: without Torie’s knowledge) hired by Sylvia to investigate sinister goings-on at Gaheimer House, which now appears to be haunted. And if all that wasn’t enough, Torie’s hostile mother-in-law comes for a visit.

Happily, Torie’s extended adolescence may finally be drawing to an end as she comes to terms with Sylvia’s flaws (and, by extension, those of Torie’s family and friends) and discovers more dramatic chapters in the history of New Kassel.