The Thirteenth Chime

A legendary Bellhaven clock. A Halloween gathering. Thirteen impossible strikes. When collector Malcolm Avery brings a long-silent Victorian clock to The Curious Clockwork, Penny Reed discovers that an original component has been quietly replaced. Malcolm soon reveals a disturbing pattern: twelve antique clocks may have lost valuable original parts after professional restoration. He plans to take his evidence to Detective Mike Russell after the town's Halloween preview. He never gets the chance. Before midnight, Malcolm is found dead in Penny's restoration room, killed with one of her own winding cranks. His evidence folder is gone. Then the Avery clock strikes thirteen. Bellhaven sees a curse. Penny sees a mechanism. Working with Mike, she follows the physical clues through family secrets, sloppy historical records, missing clock parts, and one carefully staged extra chime. When a suspect who claims not to know Malcolm's evidence uses the number twelve, Penny realizes the killer has said more than he intended. The thirteenth chime was meant to turn murder into folklore. Penny intends to make sure the truth is louder