Heirloom

Description

A stranger gives you a lovely piece of jewelry — pale, smooth, beautifully made. A gift, he says, just for you. He carved it from the last person he chose. You’re the next.

The well-off families of Verewood have started receiving exquisite bone jewelry from an admirer none of them can place: a pendant here, a ring there, always a perfect fit, always arriving just before the recipient vanishes. The pieces are the work of a true artisan, which is the unbearable part. He courts before he collects.

Estate appraiser Cordelia Asch handles one of the pieces for a grieving client and recognizes the craftsmanship as a kind of signature — a maker presenting his next commission with a present made from his last. Then a small velvet box arrives at her own door, no name, just a clasp of pale carved bone sized exactly to her wrist.

Refined and skin-crawling, this is gothic horror about being admired by the worst possible eye. Walton makes elegance itself feel like a held breath before a blade. The gift is always beautiful. The gift is always a promise.

Open the box. Try it on. See if it fits.

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End of set — 30 titles. Voice: L.A. Walton / Inked Oracle Books.