The third tale in the GHOSTS OF NEW ENGLAND: LAST LIGHT POINT is FOR THE LOVE OF GRACE by award winning and best-selling author ( and dear friend!) Nancy Fraser
Fall, 1941
Grace O’Hearn has lived in Last Light Point since long before the ’29 stock market crash took so much from so many. Ten years later, things are looking up. When Grace’s father is murdered, Grace becomes the sole owner of the Crowe’s Nest Tavern–an establishment that dates back centuries, and comes with its own resident ghosts.
FBI agent, Max Stewart, is sent to Last Light Point to investigate racketeering and police corruption. Could it be connected to man’s murder? When he first meets Grace, he’s convinced she’s hiding something. Yet, her keen insight about the town, and everyone in it, may be the best lead he has.
Can they work together to bring down the guilty? Or, will an attraction neither of them wants keep getting in the way?
The Crowe’s Nest Tavern, Last Light Point
Early Autumn, 1941
“Simon, I can see you,” Grace said softly. “There’s no sense hiding in the corner of the mirror behind the cheap whiskey.”
“I didn’t want to bother you,” the scrappy pirate ghost explained. “You’ve got enough to deal with without the likes of me pestering you.”
Grace O’Hearn braced her hands against the edge of the bar and sighed deeply, wearily, the emotional release shaking the half dozen glasses drying on the stained pewter countertop.
“You’re never a bother, Simon.” When she looked up, Simon’s visage slid to the middle of the mirror, his slumped shoulders and worn clothes taking up a good portion of the space.
“I see you were mopping the floor again, Miss.”
“This worn linoleum has seen better days,” she confirmed. “My uncle put it down in the early twenties, when he’d turned the tavern into a speakeasy during prohibition.”
“Aye, Miss. I remember it well. Cursed a blue streak he did, putting the floor down.”
“He said it was so his patrons could dance,” she recalled. “Some days, I’m half tempted to rip it up and refinish the old floorboards hidden beneath. Even then, I don’t think it would help with… with…”
Simon’s usually gruff voice softened. “Take it from someone who swabbed his shipmate’s blood from the deck more times than I care to recall, the stain goes away, but the memory remains.”
“That’s it, exactly,” she agreed. “I’ll never be able to look at the tavern floor again without seeing my father’s body.”
“I heard what that no-good policeman said yesterday. He called it a robbery gone wrong. But, I’m guessing, you don’t agree.”
“Nobody robs a tavern at seven o’clock in the morning,” Grace reasoned. “We’d not even opened for business. So, no, I don’t agree. It’s definitely Devon Barkley behind my father’s death, I know it in my very soul.”
“Speaking of souls,” Simon said, “there’s one that’s been knocking on the door between here and the afterlife for a few days now. They just can’t seem to find their way in.”
“As the self-appointed welcoming committee, isn’t it your job to help them?” Grace asked. “Or, have you passed your duties on to one of the others?”
“What others? I know they’re here… at least a few of them. I can feel their energy, but I haven’t actually seen another of my kind since your pa died. Other than her, of course.” Simon shook his head, rattling the bottles of whiskey, gin, and vodka.
“The Lady in White?”
“Aye. She’s goes from one room to the next, floating around like she owns the place.”
Grace chuckled. “Well, she kind of does. After all, she’s been here longer than all of us.”
“Still, she doesn’t—”
Simon’s words were cut short by the opening of the tavern door. Grace swiveled around on the stool, expecting to see either Detective Mitchell, or one of his patrolmen. Instead, she came face-to-face with a stranger. A tall, well-dressed, and somewhat handsome stranger.
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Her spicy romances have won top awards year after year and received cover quotes from some of the most recognized names in the romance industry. Nancy was named Top Canadian Author for 2021 by N.N. Lights Book Heaven.
When not writing (which is almost never), Nancy dotes on her five wonderful grandchildren and looks forward to traveling and reading when time permits. Nancy lives in Atlantic Canada where she enjoys the relaxed pace and colorful people.
Peggy Jaeger, Author 