The Keeper of Wren Hall

Yorkshire, 1871. Charlotte Wren inherits Wren Hall, and with it a duty her family has kept for two hundred years: to sit with the dying of the village and write their names in a great black ledger. But the ledger writes back. Three days before a death, a new name appears in handwriting Charlotte does not recognize. She has seen it happen for farmers and grandmothers and strangers. She has stopped being surprised. Then the ledger writes the name of Thomas Ashby, the blacksmith, the man she has loved since she was sixteen. Three days, and no ink will blot it out. To save him, Charlotte must open a second ledger hidden in the village chapel, learn the bargain her ancestors struck, and decide whether a Wren's life is worth a Wren's love. A Victorian historical mystery and a cozy fantasy romance, in the tradition of The Orphanage by the Lake and Elizabeth Gaskell.