The spur of the moment decision made by the clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, that there would be no tarot reading given that day or any other day for her new client, Esme Peebles, was understandable. Given the circumstances, a sympathetic ear was the most Mrs Charles could offer her, despite the fact that she was in deep distress and needed reassurance that she wasn’t losing her sanity.
Everything changed with the faint shadow that threatened Esme Peebles as she expressed this greatest fear of hers which lay embedded in the heart of her story with three, final words spoken by a dying old woman, “Don’t tell Louie”. The shadow forewarned that by openly persisting with this fear of hers, she was placing her life in great danger which left Mrs Charles with no alternative. She decided to give the requested reading in the full expectation that whatever the cards revealed, she would be placing herself in much the same position Esme Peebles was having to face. Accept and pursue Esme Peebles’s cause, and she would be entirely alone.
And so it came to pass. The Gidding police, a close friend, David Sayer – an ex-Chief Detective Superintendent of Police, who had assisted her on other similar occasions – Mrs Charles’s absent-minded, alien obsessed brother, Cyril – and ultimately, everyone living in her home village, Little Gidding, all turned against her.
A battle which proved to be one she knew from the outset that she couldn’t win. Not alone. But she was determined to try.
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Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Mignon Warner's Don't Tell Louie