Renting country houses without a mysterious past occupant is super difficult.

3. Quickthorn – Lanora Miller

Susan Copeland is a US lady moving to a small village in England because her new husband Alec has an important government job that requires him to be in England for at least a year. He also has a past that involves the mysterious woman whose house Susan just rented…Fiona. Fiona is very intriguing to so many in the village and so Susan gets to experience weird visitations from Hugh, who is still in love with Fiona and also trying to break into the loft where her stuff is stored, and someone who tries to essentially take Susan out real quick. This is not just because she’s from the US and renting/invading the village. It actually seems like a mostly welcoming place, which is suspicious in a Gothic. At least one of her neighbors is resolutely icy and unwelcoming enough to make sense. And it seems like nobody liked Fiona besides Hugh and apparently Susan’s husband back in the day, which leads Susan to some foul moods and also investigating in London.

Susan does her best to get along with those she meets and she finds that there was an archaeological excavation being started behind her house for Roman artifacts that was semi-abandoned because of Fiona. Susan is interested in archaeology and invites the dig to begin again, not realizing that will invite some burying as well.

 

Ozma knows being mysterious and intriguing is a tough business, especially when friends like Horace keep sniffing around your excavation pit.