"In the gothic tradition of Rebecca and The House of the Seven Gables, Wendy Webb's intoxicating mystery The Fate of Mercy Alban follows one family's effort to confront the secrets of its own sordid past as they haunt the last remaining members of the storied Alban clan. Hidden passages, portraits with moving eyes, and the conflicting mandates of wealth, power, and love weave together to create a story that will send chills down your spine. Read in a well-lit room!" —Katherine Howe, bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass

 

Grace Alban has spent twenty years away from her childhood home, the stately Alban House on the shores of Lake Superior, for reasons she would rather forget. But when her mother's unexpected death brings Grace and her teen-age daughter home, she finds more haunting the halls and passageways of Alban House than her own personal demons.

Long-buried family secrets, a packet of old love letters and a lost manuscript plunge Grace into a decades-old mystery about a scandalous party at Alban House, when a world-famous author took his own life and Grace's aunt disappeared without a trace. The night has been shrouded in secrecy by the powerful Alban family for all of these years, and Grace realizes her family secrets tangle and twist as darkly as the secret passages of Alban House.

Her mother was intending to tell the truth about that night to a reporter on the very day she died—could it have been murder? Or was she a victim of the supposed Alban curse? With the help of the disarmingly kind—and attractive—Reverend Matthew Parker, Grace must uncover the truth about her home and its curse before she and her daughter become the next victims.

Wendy Webb, whose writing has been compared to that of Stephen King and Bram Stoker, has woven a suspenseful mystery that skillfully skirts the boundary between what is paranormal and what is psychological in The Fate of Mercy Alban.

Some pictures from the book's Pinterest board:

 

 

Meet the author tomorrow night!
On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 7:30 pm at our Highlands Ranch store, Wendy Webb, the author of The Tale of Halcyon Crane—the 2011 winner of the Minnesota Book Award for genre fiction, and an Indie Next Pick from the Independent Booksellers Association—will read from and sign her new novel The Fate of Mercy Alban.



Can’t make it to the signing? Request an autographed copy here: books@tatteredcover.com