When Great War veteran Laurence Bartram arrives in Easton Deadall, he is struck by the beauty of the place: a crumbling manor, a venerable church, and a memorial to the village’s soldiers, almost all of whom died in one bloody battle.    Now peace prevails, and the rest of England is newly alight with hope, but Easton Deadall remains haunted by tragedy—as does the Easton family. In 1911, five-year-old Kitty disappeared from her bed and has not been seen in thirteen years; only her fragile mother still believes she is alive. While Laurence is a guest of the manor, a young maid vanishes in a sinister echo of Kitty’s disappearance. And when a body is discovered in the manor’s ancient church, Laurence is drawn into the grounds’ forgotten places, where deadly secrets lie in wait.    A gorgeous restoration of the manor-house mystery, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is sure to entrance literary, historical, and crime fiction readers. When Laurence Bartram, a veteran of the Great War, arrives in Easton Deadall, he is struck by the beauty of the place: a crumbling manor, a venerable church, and a memorial to the village s soldiers, almost all of whom died in one bloody battle. Now peace prevails, and the rest of England is newly alight with hope, but Easton Deadall remains haunted by tragedy as does the Easton family. In 1911, five-year-old Kitty disappeared from her bed and has not been seen in thirteen years; only her fragile mother believes she is still alive. While Laurence is a guest of the manor, a young maid vanishes, in a sinister echo of Kitty s disappearance. And when a body is discovered in the manor s ancient church, Laurence is drawn into the grounds foreign places, where deadly secrets lie in wait. A gorgeous restoration of the manor-house mystery, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is sure to entrance literary, historical, and crime fiction readers. The historical background is fascinating, the plot satisfying, and the characters have a psychological depth. The writing is great. I enjoyed these books enormously. Ann Cleeves , Dagger Award winning author of the Vera Stanhope series Speller s navigation of trauma of old soldiers, of a community, of a shaken social class is outstanding . Financial Times Speller s follow-up to her acclaimed debut, The Return of Captain John Emmett , is a well-crafted mystery with intriguing historical details and measured pacing that creates suspense. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear s Maisie Dobbs series and readers who enjoy well-drawn characters in historicals will add this to their wish list . Library Journal Restrained and marvelous , The Return of Captain John Emmett is full of jolting revelations and quiet insights and one last, subtle act of charity that echoes louder and longer than any gunshot. Wall Street Journal Speller brings a historian s skills to her intriguing, old-fashioned mystery wrapped in a wartime enigma. This whopping whodunit, which also manages to create a poignant portrait of soldiers lives in the aftermath of World War I, presents a devastated, grayed-down England suffering under the profound loss that overwhelms survivors. Boston Globe