In The Game is a Footnote, Gemma Doyle, part-owner of both Mrs. Hudson’s Tearoom and the adjoining Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, is skeptical of the current case she’s being asked to investigate. According to Leslie Wilson, mother of Gemma’s best friend Jayne, possible ghostly happenings have occurred in the oldest home in the town of West London, Massachusetts. Scarlet House was built in 1648 and despite its age, it doesn’t have a history of hauntings or other paranormal activity. Until now. Items are disappearing from their usual spots only to be found later in odd places.
But the board chair, Robyn Kirkpatrick, had an unsettling experience while giving a school group a tour. Robyn saw a woman at the end of the upstairs hallway—a woman she didn’t know and couldn’t identify. Robyn looked away for a split second and when she looked back, the woman was gone. Further questioning of the staff revealed Robyn was the only one who had seen her. Gemma is on the verge of telling Robyn and the rest of the board she has no interest in pursuing this case, but instead she finds herself agreeing to spend the night in the old home, to see what is really going on.
The night doesn’t go well. Instead of clearing up the mysterious goings-on, the mystery deepens when a rolling pin is found where it wasn’t earlier, and something sets off the animals in the barn. Eventually, everything calms down and nothing is found to explain the commotion. At an emergency board meeting the next day, Jayne and Gemma give their report. Once back in town, Jayne realizes she’s forgotten her purse at Scarlet House and they go back to retrieve it. Once they get there, retrieving the purse is forgotten with the discovery of a body in the barnyard. No longer is this a case of a possible poltergeist, but of a murder. Someone is targeting Scarlet House for unknown reasons. Gemma needs to find out why before another murder occurs.
The Game is a Footnote is a good addition to the series. Recommended.
Hardcover | $26.99
Published by Crooked Lane Books
Jan 10, 2023 | 320 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4| ISBN 9781639101450
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Thanks to #NetGalley for a copy of the book