Murders at the Black Abbey Towers by Gina Kirkham

Author:Gina Kirkham [Kirkham, Gina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Published: 2025-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

THE STORY

The atmosphere in the bar of the Bell, Book and Candle was surprisingly warm and inviting, helped along by the huge open fire in the stone grate. The logs cracked and spat sparks that were quickly swept upwards to join the smoke in its rise to the sky through the inglenook chimney. As an added bonus, Hazel had dropped her wizened witch persona for the evening, opting for a more suitable woolly turtle-neck sweater and a pair of thinning leggings tucked into her UGG boots, providing comfort whilst she served her regulars.

Hilda was happily toasting her bootee-clad toes in the nearest chair to the fire whilst Ethel, Millie, Clarissa and Olive occupied the cushioned bench sofas. Four sweet sherries and a bottle of Guinness sat on the table.

‘Well, that was a day, wasn’t it?’ Olive took a sip of her Guinness. ‘I can’t get over how calm you lot were. Didn’t it bother you in the slightest?’ She was still very much in awe of her new-found friends and their ability to shrug off blood, gore and intrigue as though it was a trip to the corner shop for half a pound of butter and a pork pie, whilst Ethel was very much in awe that a woman of Olive’s years had forsaken a glass and was cheerfully swigging stout directly from the bottle.

Clarissa waved her hand, not dismissively, more as an act of modesty and coyness. ‘We’re seasoned hands when it comes to murders, Olive; there’s nothing that fazes us any more. If anything, it makes us all the more determined to get involved. We love a bit of madness, murder and mayhem.’

‘It’s what keeps us young at heart,’ Hilda offered. ‘Did you know they’d cordoned off the old boiler room at Abbey Towers just before we left? Apparently they think that’s where it happened.’ She offered up her glass for a refill. ‘I would like to know more about that place, not what our Olive here found in its depths, but about its history. Surely we can’t be the first to stumble upon some of its secrets?’

‘Talking about Black Abbey again, are we, ladies?’ Hazel pushed a bowl of peanuts into the middle of the table, quickly followed up with four more sherries and another bottle of Guinness. ‘I could tell you a few things about that place.’ She gave an exaggerated shudder. ‘Lived here all my life I have, nothing gets past me.’

The ladies were all ears, desperate for any snippet of information that would assist them in their planned adventure during the Halloween party. ‘Here you go, Hazel – sit here.’ Ethel patted the cushion of the spare chair next to Hilda.

Hazel made herself comfortable. ‘Well, it all started in the 1890s, the Wraithe family had Abbey Towers, then known as Black Abbey Towers.’ Her eyes narrowed as she looked at each of them in turn. ‘Calduggan Wraithe was a relatively young man who had a penchant for witchcraft, black magic and…’ she paused for effect.

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