The Curse of Penryth Hall was the winner of the Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel prize. Jess Armstrong follows in the tradition of global bestseller Jacqueline Winspear in bringing a fresh take on the interwar period.

1922. Since the Great War, Ruby Vaughn has made a life for herself running a rare bookshop alongside octogenarian Mr Owen. She thought that she had consigned painful memories of Penryth Hall, deep in the Cornish countryside, to the distant past. Returning to the hall, home to a once dear friend, Tamsyn, leads Ruby to cross paths with Tamsyn''s sinister husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. Desperate to leave, Ruby''s plans are thwarted when Penryth''s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward has been brutally killed in the orchard prompting fears that a dormant curse has been awoken. The Pellar, Ruan Kivell, is summoned. The locals believe that this unsettling man can break the curse. Sceptical Ruby doesn''t believe in curses or Pellars but to protect her friend, she must work alongside him to find out what really happened that night.