The Hanged Man’s Noose
by July Penz Sheluk
“Things
aren’t always what they seem”—a necessary proviso for any great mystery, and
Judy Penz Sheluk has done a masterful job holding true to this idiom in The Hangman’s Noose.
Freelance
journalist Emily Garland is enjoying her life in Toronto when the
editor-in-chef of Urban Living Publications offers Emily a temporary assignment
in the quaint town of Lount’s Landing, ninety miles northeast of the city.
Emily’s interest peaks when she learns that the company will pay her rent for a
Victorian row-house during the course of the assignment. She begins to pay
closer attention with the offer of a hefty salary, benefits, and stock options.
The assignment sounds too good to be true and she grows suspicious. When she
realizes that the job involves investigation of the questionable dealings by
developer Garrett Stonehaven, a man she believes is responsible for her
mother’s death, Emily pulls her gold-plated pen from her handbag and signs on
the dotted line.
Emily
begins her investigation by interviewing local business owners for a feature in
the magazine Inside the Landing.
Turns out several folks in Lount’s Landing aren’t too enthusiastic about
Stonehaven’s plans to convert the abandoned Main Street schoolhouse into a
mega-box store. But Stonehaven is a charismatic operator and he has convinced a
few entrepreneurs to invest in the project, causing division among the locals.
Soon a sporting goods storeowner, Carter Dixon, who’s opposed to the
development, dies from anaphylactic shock when peanuts end up in his meal at
the Sunrise Café. Then a new waitress at the café dies of a supposed drug
overdose.
Emily
befriends Arabella Carpenter, who’s opening a new antique store, The Glass
Dolphin. The two women join forces to discover what’s really going on behind
the scene, and suspect motivations leading to murder may stem from long past
events.
Penz
Sheluk has woven an intriguing plot that hooks and keeps readers engaged to the
very last page.
Labels: #mystery #cozies #amateursleuth #antiques #investigation #mystery series #debut
