Herald of Death

A Special Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery #19

by Kate Kingsbury

Berkley Prime Crime

November 6, 2012

ISBN-10: 0425251667

ISBN-13: 9780425251669

Available in: Paperback (reprint)

Herald of Death
by Kate Kingsbury

The landscape of the Pennyfoot is covered with splashes of rich reds and greens for the holidays. That should not include blood. However, a killer is on the loose, bent on ending some residents’ good times...

The Christmas Angel is a welcome sight during the winter season—but not this year. A killer is afoot in Badgers End, cutting a lock of hair from the victims and sticking a gold angel on their foreheads. Cecily Sinclair Baxter already promised her husband that she’d take a hiatus from sleuthing. But three killings have created a blizzard of bad publicity—and guests are canceling their hotel reservations.

Cecily pokes around, but the victims seem unrelated. Then the killer claims a fourth and fifth victim, obviously not slowing down for the holidays—so neither will Cecily. She will have to stop the angel of death from striking again, leaving murder under the tree...

Originally published November 2011 in trade paperback.



Kate Kingsbury's Bio

Doreen Roberts Hight was first published at the age of eight. Her letter appeared in the children's section of a national newspaper in her native England. Born in London five years before the onset of WW II, she remembers vividly the days and nights spent in bomb shelters, where she entertained her schoolfriends by making up stories. She often contributes her love of writing about danger and suspense to those perilous times, when just waking up in the mornings was a major victory.

Although she dabbled in writing all her life, it wasn't until after her fiftieth birthday that she saw her first book in print. After reading romance novels since her teens, she blended danger into her love stories, and sold her first romantic suspense to Silhouette Books Intimate Moments line in 1987.

After writing several books for Silhouette under the name of Doreen Roberts, her agent suggested she try her hand at writing mysteries. Thus Kate Kingsbury was born. Many of Kate's characters in the Pennyfoot Hotel series are based on people she met while managing her family's seaside hotel on the southeast coast of England. Her current series, The Manor House Mysteries, was inspired by her experiences during the Second World War.

Doreen now lives in Oregon with her husband, Bill, who is also her manager. They share the household with Tippi, a rat terrier who thinks she's a Great Dane. In the last fifteen years, Doreen has written over forty books, many of which have appeared in countries all over the world. She has made the Waldenbooks Top Ten Romance list six times.