Lucy Culpepper doesn’t take no for an answer. An aspiring pianist, she dreams of being taught by the renowned Max Benovek and will defy all odds – life threatening illness, a missing great aunt, and a disgruntled uncle – to achieve it. After finding out her Uncle Wilbie has used up her college fund, Lucy discovers a selection of enchantingly beautiful paintings in the attic. Being the miserly man he is, Wilbie wants to keep any possible profits for these paintings and bargains on sending Lucy to England to find the artist – Great-aunt Fennel. Knowing Benovek lives in London she snaps up the opportunity and undertakes the adventure of a lifetime. But though Benovek proves easy to find, and immediately takes Lucy to heart, she sets off to Yorkshire only to find that her old aunt Fennel has vanished. Lucy’s search entangles her in a mystery of murder and deceit . . . can they discover who is the real aunt Fennel? Award winning author Joan Aiken brings a poignant finale to a witty and entertaining plot full of unexpected twists and turns in this modern suspense novel.
Author
Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories. She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972). Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world. Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski. Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax. Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.
