The Lost Souls of Saint Oda's - (Ruby Vaughn Mysteries) by Jess Armstrong (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Jess Armstrong's USA Today Bestselling and award winning Ruby Vaughn Mysteries return in The Lost Souls of Saint Oda's

1923. American heiress Ruby Vaughn hoped the new year would bring less murder and far less of the occult, allowing her to spend her days at the rare book shop she runs alongside her octogenarian employer, and exploring her fledgling romance with Ruan Kivell, the intriguing folk healing Pellar she met in Cornwall. But fate often has other plans. Ruby has long believed her entire family died when the Lusitania sank in 1915, however when her solicitor brings news that her mother inexplicably survived the catastrophe and he believes he's found her in a Belgian hospital just across the channel, Ruby dares not hope it's true. For if there's one thing Ruby Vaughn knows, it is that hope is the surest way to a broken heart.

With trepidation, Ruby and Ruan set off for Belgium with a simple task--to go the hospital at St. Oda's priory, find her mother, and bring her home. However, upon her arrival at the priory, Ruby learns the woman they sought had died and been hastily buried days before. Stunned, Ruby refuses to believe that her mother is truly gone. Perhaps it is her jaded heart, or all the time she's spent lady detectiving as her employer, Mr. Owen, calls it, but the more Ruby inquires into the woman's fate, the more suspicious the death becomes and Ruby and Ruan fear that both the occult and murder are at work in Belgium. As Ruby unfurls the mystery surrounding the woman, she finds more missing souls and a sinister secret that has been simmering at St. Oda's since the Great War and it's up to Ruby to find the truth.

Review Quotes

Praise for the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries

"Delightful." -People

"Evocative gothic atmosphere, a rich sense of post WWI England and an intriguing, strong heroine." -South Florida Sun Sentinel

"Sublimely entertaining. . . The literary equivalent of catnip for historical mystery readers who like their crime fiction served with up with a soupçon of gothic spookiness, a hint of romance, and a generous splash of deliciously clever wit." -Library Journal (starred review)

"An ever-twisting, page-turning narrative set against a haunting gothic backdrop." -Kirkus Reviews

"Irresistible." -Publishers Weekly

About the Author

JESS ARMSTRONG is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries. Her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. She has a master's degree in American history but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Jess lives in New Orleans with her historian husband, two sons, and a growing number of pets and plants. And when she's not working on her next project, she's probably thinking about cheese, baking, on social media, or some combination of the above.