Mary Kendall lived in old (and haunted) houses growing up which sparked a life-long interest in history and story-telling. She earned degrees in history-related fields and worked as a historian for many years. Her fiction writing is heavily influenced by the past which she believes is never really dead and buried. Fueled by black coffee and a possible sprinkling of Celtic fairy dust, she tends to find inspiration in odd places and sometimes while kneading bread dough. The author resides in Maryland with her family.
Her debut novel, The Spinster’s Fortune, is a historical mystery. Her second novel, Campbell’s Boy, will be released in November 2022. She is a contributor to Darkstroke’s anthologies for charity with stories included in Dark Paris and Dark New Orleans.
Synopsis – The Spinster’s Fortune
Moonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets. Summer of 1929. Blanche Magruder lays alone in a home for the aged and infirm, of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name.
Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for a treasure rumored to be hidden there.
A distant niece, Margaret O’Keefe, is tapped as executor and becomes embroiled in the hunt for recovering monies, taking it on as a welcome escape from her financial and marital woes.
Margaret discovers caches in unlikely spots throughout the house while family mysteries begin to unravel. As she questions whether Aunt Blanche is an insane fool or a daring genius, she also must wrangle with her own hidden truths.
Pressed towards a convergence of their pasts and presents, the two women must ultimately face a fateful discovery to rectify their lives.
Shrouded in gothic undertones and dark artifice, The Spinster’s Fortune is a tale that takes the reader on a strange journey through tangled webs of family deceit…but where does it end?