Dust to Dust

June 15, 2021
The secret depths of Hotel 1911 finally reveal a glimpse of the hidden past an employee has been desperately seeking. Ivy Nichols' family, the Morrows, once owned the mansion that is now Hotel 1911, but her father refuses to discuss the past or the fate of her mother, who left when Ivy was a child. Ivy, who's prone to panic attacks, is living at home while attending college and secretly working at the hotel, whose employees all dress in period attire. Ivy, who's a favorite of Mr. Fig, the butler, has already saved the hotel chef, her friend and love interest George, from a murder rap in the first book of the series, Murder at Hotel 1911 (2020). The newest group of guests, members of the Association for Gravestone Studies, include Dr. Borough, who once stayed with the Morrows. When one of the guests is found murdered, Mr. Fig is arrested despite being low on the list of people who might have wanted Renee Gallagher dead. Determined to clear her friend of murder charges, Ivy uses her knowledge of the hotel and the internet to start her own investigation. She finds plenty of possible motives among the gravestone society members and more clues to her own family's past. She learns that the statues on the grounds are actually grave markers and discovers a hidden passage the killer used to sneak into Renee's suite before she finally confronts her father with the shocking information she's found while trying to stay a step ahead of a killer who's marked her for death. The heroine's path to truth and happiness is still ongoing. Perhaps all will be revealed in her next adventure.

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August 1, 2021

Ivy Nichols is convinced her panic attacks and anxiety disorder are inherited from the Morrows, the ancestors she never knew. The Morrows' former house has been turned into Hotel 1911, the period-theme hotel where Ivy now works. She's there to look for stories of her ancestors, and Mr. Fig, the hotel's general manager, can tell those stories. When a guest is strangled to death, Mr. Fig is arrested for the murder. Ivy is determined to exonerate him and find the secrets kept by the victim's fianc� and members of the Gravestone Friends club. She searches the hotel for hidden passages that would enable a killer to reach the guest rooms; slowly unravels the secrets of the guests and of the house itself; and discovers a shocking truth about the Morrows. Ivy narrates her own slow-paced investigation, so readers only know what she believes to be the truth, until a newspaper photo reveals another side to the story. VERDICT The follow-up to Murder at Hotel 1911 is a slow-moving, character-driven story. Keown has created sympathetic, realistic characters, including a young boy on the autism spectrum, and portrays Ivy's struggles with anxiety. It takes a while for the story to unwind, with all the background Keown reintroduces, so this mystery is suggested only for those who read the series' first book.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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