SOLVED. Adult Mystery: Hotel or B&B where all rooms are themed after Washington Irving stories

[AquaMoon]

Was paging through a collection of Washington Irving stories and I recalled a slice of story I read a very long time ago. Maybe late 1990s.

In it the Main Character is working at (or maybe she inherited?) a hotel/bed & breakfast where each room is decorated after a different Washington Irving story. I specifically recall a bit about the "Sleepy Hollow Room" and how the MC found the decor unsettling. I don't have many plot details other than I know it was a mystery.

I know this is equal parts vague and oddly specific. But I'd like to find the book again just to prove to myself this wasn't some sort of personal mandala effect.

Thank you!

[Rainbowheart]

The Seduction of Water?

"All the center suites, which are the nicest ones, are named after something from Washington Irving ... a bit hokey, I know, but people still associate this area with him." I point to the central spine of the hotel where each floor has a three-sided bay window and starting with the fifth floor count down the names of the center suites. "There's Knickerbocker, Rip Van Winkle, Half Moon, Sleepy Hollow, and Sunnyside."

Detective March asked Harry when the gun was found. He'd asked Harry and me to meet with him in the Sleepy Hollow Suite, which had been cordoned off as a crime scene since the night of the murder. I hadn't been in the suite since that night and I'd expected to feel uneasy because of the blood on the carpet or the remains of fingerprinting powder that still lingered on the furniture and woodwork, but what upset me most was sitting in the same seat by the window where I had sat only a week before talking to Joseph, under the specter of the Headless Horseman whose fiery severed head seemed to leer at me from the painted wall. Now Detective March sat in the wing-backed chair where Joseph had sat, Harry sat in the matching chair on the other side of the window, and I was perched on the footstool in between the two.

[AquaMoon]

Rainbowheart wrote: "The Seduction of Water?

"All the center suites, which are the nicest ones, are named after something from Washington Irving ... a bit hokey, I know, but people still associate this a..."

I believe we have a match! Thank you. This was driving me absolutely batty! It's good to know this wasn't part of some long-pre-pandemic fever dream.

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, glad it was the right one!

[AquaMoon]

Me too. It was driving me crazy. I've since inter-loaned the book thru my library. I have no idea if it's even any good as a whole, but obviously the slice I recalled was memorable enough to give me a weird bookish flashback 20+ years later!