book cover of The Emporium of Dreams
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The Emporium of Dreams

(2016)
A novel by

 
 
The Emporium of Dreams

Fate has an uncanny way of uncovering the secrets of the past. If the Jackdaw had not stepped out from the Emporium of Dreams just at the moment when an old newspaper blew along Sheepshanks Alley, he would never have read about the death, ten years before of Dulcie Lewis, a young maid from Higgly Hall in far-off Pencarrig.
Had young Mitzi Jonas heeded the KEEP OUT signs on the high walls surrounding Higgly Hall and resisted the temptation to climb into the house through an open window, all would have remained buried.
The deeper the Jackdaw digs, the more unsettled he becomes; there are rumours of insanity and past violence in the Dowty family and when young William Dowty is brought to the Emporium of Dreams in search of a cure for the nightmare that has plagued him since the maid's death, he realises that he may have stirred up a hornets' nest.
Mitzi discovers a key hidden in a bar of soap and is convinced that the last occupant of the attic room before the house was abandoned, has hidden treasure somewhere in Higgly Hall. Hell-bent on finding it, she gets ever closer to discovering what happened to Dulcie Lewis and is soon unwittingly entangled in a web of intrigue that has covered over the dark deeds of the past.
As the temperature drops and the snow begins to fall, cutting off Pencarrig from the outside world, Mitzi makes a terrifying discovery and the Jackdaw realises that the stakes are higher than he could ever have imagined and there are people who will go to any lengths to keep their grisly secrets. He must make the long journey from London to Pencarrig, hoping that he is not too late.
On inheriting Higgly Hall after the death of his father, Will Dowty returns for a fleeting visit to the dilapidated house. Opening the front door he is filled with a ridiculous sense of foreboding; the urge to run away like a frightened child. The house has a strange effect on him, invoking snippets of forgotten memories from his childhood and when he discovers a child's satchel in one of the attic rooms and a bloodstained boot in the laundry room he is convinced that terrible things have happened at Higgly Hall. Beset by the reluctance of the villagers to answer his questions, he is sure that his long-forgotten nightmare holds the key to the mysterious goings on at Higgly Hall and only the old man from the Emporium of Dreams can reveal the unpalatable truth about his family's dark history.


Genre: Mystery

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