What begins as a summer diversion for a circle of wealthy New Yorkers becomes something far darker when they rent Black Aspens, a forbidding mansion in Vermont's Green Mountains said to harbor the ghost of a murder victim. The house earns its reputation: two guests are struck down at afternoon tea, both found dead in the room with the tassels, the very chamber where a brutal killing once occurred. Is this the work of vengeful spirits, or is a murderer walking among them? Enter Pennington Wise, the debut of Carolyn Wells's occult detective, whose methods blend spiritualist language with hard-boiled logic. Alongside his sharp companion Zizi, Penny must separate genuine terror from theatrical deception before the body count rises. Wells writes with the轻巧 wit and plotting precision that made her Fleming Stone novels beloved, here adding a delicious layer of atmospheric dread. The result is a puzzle box dressed in evening clothes, where séance jokes curdle into real danger and the question isn't just whodunit, but whether the supernatural will take the blame for very human sins.
