Ever since I discovered Nancy Drew, I have loved a good mystery. Author Christy Barritt ranks right up there in my favorites — her mysteries are varied and plentiful. I recently read The Inn on Hanging Hill, book 2 in the Beach House Mystery series and thoroughly enjoyed it. Find out all the details below.
Lindsey Waters never wanted to return to the seaside inn where she grew up. Too many traumatic memories haunt the place, both from her childhood and from days gone by. But with guilt relentlessly chasing her after a tragic choice, she’s desperate for a fresh start.
Mysterious incidents begin plaguing the inn—dangerous incidents—that make it clear someone wants to scare Lindsey away. But why? Does it have anything to do with the two weeks missing from her memory when she was abducted at age twelve?
Childhood friend Benjamin Newsom seems like an answer to prayer when he shows up to work as a handyman. But something is different about him, something Lindsey can’t put her finger on. She’s certain Benjamin harbors secrets.
As peril continues to close in, Lindsey must decide if she wants to face her past or run. She doesn’t know whom she can trust, and whatever choices she makes will determine if she lives or if she becomes part of the inn’s tragic legacy.
USA Today has called Christy Barritt‘s books “scary, funny, passionate, and quirky.”
A USA Today and Publishers Weekly best-seller, Christy writes both mystery and romantic suspense novels that are clean with underlying messages of faith. Her books have sold more than three million copies, one has been made into a TV movie, and another is being developed for a TV series.
Christy’s books have won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Suspense and Mystery, have been twice nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and have finaled for both a Carol Award and Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year.
She’s married to her prince charming, a man who thinks she’s hilarious–but only when she’s not trying to be. Christy’s a self-proclaimed klutz, an avid music lover who’s known for spontaneously bursting into song, and a road trip aficionado.
Christy currently splits her time between the Virginia suburbs and Hatteras Island, North Carolina. She loves spending time with her husband, her two sons, and her four dogs.
For more information, visit her website: http://www.christybarritt.com.
My Impressions:
When I need a mystery fix, I know I can rely on Christy Barritt to deliver. Her books can be funny or deadly serious, but are always page turners. Her latest in the Beach House Mystery series is definitely one I would recommend. She has the creepy house vibe down with The Inn on Hanging Hill. (Even the title promises a shivery reading experience.) The story takes place on the Eastern Shore of Virginia at a long neglected inn with history. It’s been 15 years since Lindsey has been there — after her abduction and mysterious return, her parents and she left, never to return. Now Lindsey has taken on the task of rehabbing the building and finding answers to just who was responsible for her kidnapping. Joining her is her long lost friend from those years at the inn, Benjamin. But as threats surface, things are not what they seem. I loved the two main characters. Each were very likable. They faced each danger with determination to get to the bottom of all that was happening. There is no shortage of suspects, but Barritt surprised me. Everyone, it seems, has a motive for the unsolved abduction and the present-day threats. The creepy/beach-y setting was fun and the romance between Lindsey and Benjamin was sweet, but it was the puzzle that kept me engaged. I did not see the ending coming!
I gather from the description of book one in the series, The Cottage on Ghost Lane, that The Inn on Hanging Hill is a standalone novel. But I had so much fun reading it, that the previous book is now on my TBR list. 🙂
Recommended.
Audience: Adults.
(I purchased the Kindle version from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Sounds like a scary good page turner! Both boks are going on my TBR list.