Dear Readers—

I need your advice! Put yourself in my place. We thought we had earned a peaceful existence after lovingly restoring an old stone farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. How could mortal danger find us, sandwiched between an Amish dairy farm and rental crop fields?

Let me introduce myself: I’m Kinsley Alice Alderson Ward Henning. K to my savior and second husband Todd and our zany friends, Barrie and Randall. My family claims they love me in spite of my penchant for finding trouble, and my colleagues respect me. But I’ve incurred the wrath of inept police, solving major crimes into which I’d been thrown with no recourse but to solve them myself. If I’m in danger, the cops would not respond.

I solved my first husband’s murder with no help from the police. That infuriated them. Then, years later, Todd and I rescued our kidnapped infant, a crime the police tried to blame on me. But I’m tougher, more determined, and resolute than the sheltered, frightened ex-debutant who fled Philadelphia’s obsessive media after my husband, Dr Ward’s murder.

I thought I was done confronting evil head on, yet something sinister has found me. Again! Overnight what must be a criminal enterprise erupted on the vacant farmland beyond our seven acres. It’s huge! Midnight operations, klieg lights, heavy equipment, bulldozers disrupting our sleep. Of course I snooped.

Okay, I admit I demanded they cease. I sought answers from the township and anyone with recourse to shut them down. The results? Not only did they refuse to scale it back, but they threatened us. Confrontations escalated. They offered millions over market value to buy us out. Why would anyone do that? What are they hiding? When we refused, they resorted to terrorizing us. Accidents are happening. Attempts are being made on our lives. I’m terrified for our two-year-old’s safety.

On top of that, something inexplicable is going on here. A mysterious aura is thrumming beneath the surface. Every attempt to kill us is being thwarted by something intangible. I’m beginning to suspect, as rumored, that our house might be haunted by a spirit with an agenda of its own. Even our little dog refuses to enter that spare bedroom—the one with the cold spot—that only I can feel if I stand very still.

If you were shaking in my shoes, what would you do? On one hand, this old house and setting were our dream. But I’m way beyond making a rational decision—to fight or flee. I need a plan to have it both ways—to overcome evil and persevere. I’m attaching my personal email address for your ideas, which will be kept in strictest confidence. Thank you! K.

Buried Trust, A Trust Mystery #4
Genre: Suspense with amateur sleuth
Release: June 2022
Purchase Link

Two years after Kingsley and Todd Henning recovered their kidnapped infant, they are enjoying their country existence. Everything changes when criminals initiate a criminal enterprise on the farmland adjacent to the Henning’s. Angered by late-night operations, zoning violations, and a violent foreman, the Hennings launch an investigation. Confrontations escalate. The criminal bosses attempt to buy, scare, terrorize, and kill the Hennings, whose sleuthing threatens their lucrative operation. Risking their lives, the Hennings expose the true nature of the enterprise. They realize that every close call has been thwarted by unexplainable circumstances. They suspect that their house, as rumored, is haunted by a spirit with an agenda of its own. Two crimes, one location, separated by two centuries. The question that binds them-what is buried beneath?

Meet the author
Nancy A. Hughes, a Penn State graduate and career business writer, followed her dream to a life of crime. Her amateur sleuth/suspense mystery novels, published by Black Opal Books since 2016, include The Dying Hour and its sequel, The Innocent Hour, and her Trust Trilogy: A Matter of Trust, Redeeming Trust, and Vanished. Buried Trust was added to the Trust series in on June 11, 2022. When Nancy isn’t committing murder—on paper, that is—she’s a devoted shade gardener and volunteer at the VA and Reading Hospitals. She is an active member of MWA, ITW, Sisters in Crime, and Penn Writers. Her website is hughescribe.com.

All comments are welcomed.