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Start giftingThe Secret Staircase
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreKate Hamilton is feeling good about her plans to recreate Asheboro, Maryland as the Victorian town it once was. Even two recent murders aren't enough to discourage her: after she helped to solve them, she put them behind her.
Now comes the time to make real plans, and her first goal is to renovate the Barton Mansion on the outskirts of town. Luckily, it's been maintained in good condition in the century since the wealthy Henry Barton lived and died there. But when the contractor gets started, he discovers a staircase that had been walled in years earlier. And of course, given the way Kate's luck has been going, there's a body on the stairs.
After the first shock, Kate is relieved when the autopsy reveals that the man had died around 1880. Unfortunately, it also reveals that he had not died a natural death—he had been murdered.
So Kate and Carroll Peterson, who Kate had drafted to sort through Henry Barton's papers, start a hunt to identify the man and why he died at the Barton Mansion. But when a second body is found—this time from the present day—Kate realizes that someone may not be so keen on her digging up the past . . .
Sheila Connolly is the nationally bestselling, award-winning author of the Orchard Mystery series, the Museum series, and the stand-alone titles Relatively Dead and Once She Knew. She wrote her first mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime under the name Sarah Atwell, and the first book, Through a Glass, Deadly, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Sheila lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three cats.
Emily Durante has been acting since the age of seven, performing in a number of stage plays professionally, in the community, and at the college level. Other performance credits include commercial and industrial voice work, educational live theater, and singing telegrams. She has been narrating audiobooks for over ten years. Her titles include the Midnight Twins trilogy by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson, Impossible and Locked Inside both by Nancy Werlin, and Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. She has also directed audiobooks, including the Earphones Award-winning performance of Heaven's Keep narrated by Buck Schirner. Emily resides in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two children.