WINNER OF THE 2012 BONY BLITHE LIGHT MYSTERY AWARD!

Lyris Pembrooke unearths a terrible family secret in the old mansion she recently inherited. Investigating the tragedy, she delves into the psyche of a damaged WWII soldier, aided by her irrepressible spirit guide and the family psychic.

SPAN class=text abp="1559">After inheriting Hammersleigh House from her eccentric great-uncle Patrick, Lyris Pembrooke makes a grisly discovery in the tower room of the Georgian-style mansion?the mummified remains of a child.

SPAN class=text abp="1561">To uncover the mystery, Lyris is aided by family psychic Aunt Clematis and Leander, a spirit guide with an attitude, who prefers hanging out with Winston Churchill and John Lennon. While nurturing a new relationship with Blackshore’s Chief of Police, avoiding her controlling ex-husband’s demands, hosting this year’s family reunion and engaging in a psychological battle with the mansion's butler, Lyris is taxed to her limits.

SPAN class=text abp="1563">During an oppressive summer heat wave, a tear in the gossamer veil that separates past and present forces Lyris to finally accept her psychic destiny. Driven to find out who murdered little Tommy Pembrooke sixty-eight years ago, she begins a journey back in time.

Gloria Ferris is a former procedure writer for a nuclear power plant who now writes mysteries, both paranormal and humorous. Corpse Flower won the Unhanged Arthur Ellis Award in 2010, and her first novel, Cheat the Hangman (published 2011), was shortlisted in 2009 for the same award. Gloria lives in Guelph, Ontario.

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