This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The letter arrived on a Tuesday morning, delivered by a courier whose pale complexion seemed to match the overcast sky that hung heavy over Toronto. Eleanor Hartwell had been expecting nothing more than the usual stack of bills and advertisements, but instead found herself staring at an envelope bearing her name in elegant script, sealed with black wax that bore the impression of a raven.

Inside, the parchment crackled as she unfolded it, revealing words that would forever alter the course of her quiet life as a university librarian.

Dear Miss Hartwell,

It is with solemn duty that I inform you of the passing of your great-aunt, Cordelia Blackthorne, whom you may not have known personally but who has remembered you in her final testament. As the sole surviving heir to the Blackthorne lineage, you have inherited Grimhaven Manor, located in the village of Millbrook, some two hundred miles north of your current residence.

The estate, while extensive, comes with certain... peculiarities that require immediate attention. I urge you to travel to Millbrook at your earliest convenience to discuss the terms of your inheritance and the responsibilities that accompany it.

Your servant, Reginald Crowley, Solicitor

Eleanor read the letter three times before its contents fully registered. A great-aunt she had never heard of, a manor house, an inheritance that seemed too fantastical to be real. Her modest apartment suddenly felt smaller, the walls pressing in as she contemplated this unexpected turn of fortune.