Aunt Dimity Mystery

When a strapping young Jack MacBride arrives in Finch to wrap up his late uncle's affairs, heads turn in the sleepy English village. But when Lori volunteers to help Jack clear out his uncle's overgrown garden, they discover something even more shocking than a stranger turning up in Finch. After Lori laughingly tosses a coin into the garden's old well and makes a wish, she is baffled to find that the wish seems to have come true.

There's trouble in Finch. Four recently sold cottages are standing empty, and the locals fear that a developer plans to turn their cozy village into an enclave of overpriced weekend homes. But for once Lori Shepherd can't help. Her infant daughter, her father-in-law's upcoming wedding, and the crushing prospect of her fortieth birthday have left her feeling overwhelmed. Until, that is, she has a chance encounter with an eccentric inventor named Arthur Hargreaves. Dubbed the Summer King by his equally eccentric family, Arthur is as warmhearted as the summer sun. In his presence, Lori forgets her troubles - and Finch's. But Lori snaps out of her happy trance when she discovers detailed maps of Finch in the Summer King's library. Is Arthur secretly plotting Finch's demise? With Aunt Dimity's otherworldly help, Lori mounts a crusade to save her beloved village from the Summer King's scorching greed.

While exploring the attic in her cottage near the small English village of Finch, Lori Shepherd makes an extraordinary discovery: a gold and silver bracelet inlaid with gleaming garnets, which she quickly learns belonged to Aunt Dimity. When Lori brings news of the garnet bracelet to Aunt Dimity, it awakens poignant memories of a doomed romance in Aunt Dimity's past. Regretfully, Aunt Dimity asks Lori to do what she could not bring herself to do - return the bracelet to her unsuccessful suitor or to his rightful heir.

While her husband and sons are spending Easter break camping, Lori is perfectly happy to be left at home where she can take care of her toddler and attend the quilting bee that her elderly neighbor is holding in the old schoolhouse. In fact, once at the schoolhouse, Lori is delighted to find herself seated next to her widowed neighbor and uses the opportunity to learn more about her life in the village of Old Cowerton-including finding out a startling secret about the her neighbor's first-husband's death. Setting out to learn more about what happened, Lori-with Aunt Dimity's advice in hand-discovers the truth about what residents of Old Cowerton refer to as the widow's curse-but the more she digs, the more horrifying it gets.

On a dull and dreary October day, Lori Shepherd and her husband set off for a quiet weekend without the kids. But before they go, he must pay a visit to a reclusive client. After Lori drops him off, a storm that's been brewing intensifies, and she ends up stranded in an ancient, rambling inn named for a king's ransom in smuggled goods that passed through the village in ages past. When Lori begins hearing footsteps and strange noises, Aunt Dimity reminds her that the inn is almost certainly haunted but that not all ghosts are interested in harming the living. But the longer Lori is stuck at the inn, the stranger things seem. Are the noises she hears the spirits of smuggling's past? Or should Lori be more concerned with the living inhabitants of the inn, like the hulking, grizzled cook, an ex-con who seems to be everywhere at once? Joining forces with her new friend Bishop Smallwood, Lori sets out to discover once and for all who-or what-is haunting the King's Ransom.

It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch-and everyone is sick. Although many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma and Derek Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party-until a car appears in the winding driveway and promptly slides off the slick pavement and into a tree. Matilda Tilly Trout-a lost and scatterbrained middle-aged woman-is mercifully unhurt and invited to stay the night. The next morning, Emma asks her guests if they would like a tour of the Manor-including a secret room she recently discovered. Several guests put forth guesses as to its purpose, but it's Tilly who correctly identifies the room as a chapel. Placing a palm on one of the ornately carved panels, Tilly finds a hidden compartment concealing a pile of glittering treasure-including an exquisitely decorated heart made of solid gold. Where did it come from, and why does it look so different from everything else in the chapel? Why didn't Emma even know about this hidden compartment in her own home until now-and how did Tilly?

It's early May in the small English village of Finch and the air is crackling with excitement: A newcomer is about to move into Pussywillows, a riverside cottage with a romantic reputation. Will the cottage's newest resident prove yet again its enchanting ability to matchmake? But when Crispin Windle arrives, no one knows what to make of him: Seemingly a loner, he repels every welcoming gesture and appears altogether uninterested in being a part of the community. Soon, the townspeople have all but dismissed him. Only Lori and Tommy Prescott, a young army veteran who recently moved to Finch, refuse to give up. They orchestrate a chance meeting that leads to a startling discovery: a set of overgrown ruins. They are, Aunt Dimity shares, the remains of a Victorian woolen mill that once brought prosperity to Finch. As the three explore, they stumble upon the unmarked graves of children who died working at the mill. Heartbroken, Lori, Tommy, and Mr. Windle get to work on the seemingly impossible task of identifying the children to give them a proper burial. And as Mr. Windle works tirelessly to name the forgotten children, he slowly begins to open up—giving the romantic cottage a chance to heal his heart as well.