Murder in the Mystery Suite (Book Retreat Mysteries, #1)

by Ellery Adams

A room without books is like a body without a soul. —MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO

“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” was Aunt Octavia’s favorite quote,

Like the rest of Storyton Hall, it had been dismantled in the 1830s and transported from its original seat in the English countryside to an isolated valley in western Virginia.

“It’s a gin rickey, a drink F. Scott Fitzgerald enjoyed very much—among many others.” Jane held her glass out to the light. “There’s not much to it. Two ounces dry gin, half an ounce of lime juice, club soda, a lime half, and ice.”

“That’s why the garden’s full of lavender, bay leaves, and tansy. Keeps the flies away.”

Umberto Ferrari, the Italian detective made famous by the late Adela Dundee, the most popular authoress of traditional mysteries since Agatha Christie.

Lady Vanishes. It’s one part spiced rum, one part butterscotch schnapps, one part chocolate liqueur, and two parts half and half. Shaken and poured over ice.”

Marcus Didius Falco, the most intrepid investigator in all of first-century Rome.”

“We should never try to conceal the mistakes of the past, my girl,” he’d said in a firm but gentle tone. “Otherwise, how can we learn from them?”

“Motherhood provides a type of mental toughness that many a soldier fails to achieve.”