The Ledger of Hollow Names
A forgotten brass casket wedged between crumbling tax ledgers holds a secret someone will kill to keep buried. Widow Margery Hasting has spent years cataloguing the forgotten records of a city archive, learning that the most dangerous things are the ones no one remembers to look for. So when a small brass casket turns up between the spines of two decaying ledgers, its surface worn smooth by decades of handling, she knows it was not lost , it was waiting. The interlocking letters on its lid connect it to the Bellamy name, one of the oldest and most guarded families in the region, and to a Hasting heir no one has seen in years. Her discovery draws the attention of Cora Bellamy, who claims the casket by bloodright; Owen Thrace, a private collector willing to pay any price; and Edith Pullman, a clerk whose careful demeanor hides an unsettling familiarity with the archive's darkest corners. As Margery presses deeper, she uncovers a trail of concealed wills, vanished ledgers, and a death long ago ruled accidental. Each step toward the truth narrows her circle of safety, and each ally she finds , Saul Bellamy's quiet warnings, Hesper Lyle's careful loyalties, Wilhelmina Crow's bitter knowledge , may be leading her closer to a trap. With Victor Hasting reappearing after years of silence, the casket's contents finally within reach, and the archive closing for the night, Margery must choose: open what was sealed, or walk away and let the Hollow Names keep their secrets.
