The Castle and the Candle
(2025)(The ninth book in the Murderwell Mystery series)
A novel by B G Wood
Castle? Check. Creepy portraits? Check. A mystery that might kill her? Obviously.
Gina Biletti is done. Done with men, done with solving other people's problems, and definitely done with the late-night replay reel of every wrong decision she's ever made. What she wants—no, what she needs—is a time out. Not yoga, not journaling, not another self-help podcast telling her to "lean in." She means an actual adult time out. A chair in the corner, maybe. A sign that reads Do Not Disturb Until Further Notice.
When she's offered a short-term research gig in the Austrian Alps—two weeks helping to sort historical files in a peaceful old manor house—Gina sees it as the perfect way to disappear somewhere scenic and chill while she figures out her next move.
What she gets is more Jane Eyre than The Sound of Music. A gloomy castle with a sealed-off wing no one talks about. A barefoot heiress obsessed with folklore—and her brooding fiancé with too many secrets. A glamorous Cambridge professor haunted by scandal. A moody stable boy. And a wolf dog. Did we mention the wolf dog?
Then there's the archive itself—full of redacted documents, missing reports, and whispered warnings from a possibly-senile historian who doesn't trust anyone else to finish what he started. Except Gina. Kind of.
The deeper Gina digs, the more tangled the truth becomes: long-buried WWII mysteries, a Nazi scientist with a stolen satchel of secrets, and a local legend about a drowned girl who drags the wicked into the fog.
Someone brought Gina here for a reason. And someone else will do anything to keep the past buried.
Atmospheric, subversive, and crackling with slow-burn suspense, The Castle and the Candle is modern gothic at its most addictive—for fans of Rebecca, The Broken Girls, and every TikTok account that's ever filmed a candlelit staircase and whispered, "This place has a vibe."
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Gina Biletti is done. Done with men, done with solving other people's problems, and definitely done with the late-night replay reel of every wrong decision she's ever made. What she wants—no, what she needs—is a time out. Not yoga, not journaling, not another self-help podcast telling her to "lean in." She means an actual adult time out. A chair in the corner, maybe. A sign that reads Do Not Disturb Until Further Notice.
When she's offered a short-term research gig in the Austrian Alps—two weeks helping to sort historical files in a peaceful old manor house—Gina sees it as the perfect way to disappear somewhere scenic and chill while she figures out her next move.
What she gets is more Jane Eyre than The Sound of Music. A gloomy castle with a sealed-off wing no one talks about. A barefoot heiress obsessed with folklore—and her brooding fiancé with too many secrets. A glamorous Cambridge professor haunted by scandal. A moody stable boy. And a wolf dog. Did we mention the wolf dog?
Then there's the archive itself—full of redacted documents, missing reports, and whispered warnings from a possibly-senile historian who doesn't trust anyone else to finish what he started. Except Gina. Kind of.
The deeper Gina digs, the more tangled the truth becomes: long-buried WWII mysteries, a Nazi scientist with a stolen satchel of secrets, and a local legend about a drowned girl who drags the wicked into the fog.
Someone brought Gina here for a reason. And someone else will do anything to keep the past buried.
Atmospheric, subversive, and crackling with slow-burn suspense, The Castle and the Candle is modern gothic at its most addictive—for fans of Rebecca, The Broken Girls, and every TikTok account that's ever filmed a candlelit staircase and whispered, "This place has a vibe."
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- Modern Gothic Mystery
Smart, Reluctant Female Sleuth
Castle Vibes in the Austrian Alps
Folklore, Archives, and Family Lies
WWII Cold-Case Clues
Spies (Maybe), Lies (Definitely)
Messy Women Solving Crimes
And Yes, There's a Wolf Dog
Genre: Mystery