The Hollow Bell

Wren Aldridge steps off a Greyhound into the gray drizzle of Marrow Creek, Vermont, carrying a suitcase, a faded photograph, and more questions than answers. She's come to trace the sister she never knew existed, a mystery her family refused to speak of, buried somewhere in the ledgers and letters left behind by her late great-aunt. But Marrow Creek is not the quiet village Wren expected. Within days of her arrival, the church bell begins to toll at midnight with no hand on the rope, and a headstone in the old cemetery bears a name someone has tried to erase. As Wren digs through diary pages, newspaper clippings, and the memories of townsfolk who would rather forget, she uncovers a tangle of secrets stretching back three generations. Local shopkeeper Edna Calloway knows more than she'll say. The gruff Malcolm Graves keeps one particular room locked. And the kindly Reverend Sam Ogilvie keeps glancing toward the church tower as though expecting a visitor who never left. The deeper Wren searches, the clearer it becomes that someone in Marrow Creek is determined to keep the past buried, and they're willing to ring the bell again to do it. With the help of a sharp-eyed diner owner and a reporter chasing the same ghosts, Wren must untangle a web of ledgers, lies, and one terrible night in 1962 before the truth claims another life. Because in Marrow Creek, the past doesn't rest. It tolls.