Manuscript Murders

About the Book

Margery Delacorte, who teaches Renaissance Art at Townsend Liberal Arts College near Boston, is with a tour traveling in Spain, and Salamanca is their last stop. Two days before the tour’s scheduled departure for home, Margery is involved in two murders, one a young Spaniard, Carlos, who befriended her at the café del Oro in the Plaza Mayor, the other, her roommate, Loretta in a case of mistaken identity. The story involves a forged medieval manuscript dating back to Queen Isabella that had been stolen from the British Museum. The forger is Carlos. The man responsible for the murders is under cover of the tour and in the pay of the oversized Count de Rengas.

At Margery’s last meeting with Carlos, he gave her a ring to deliver to his sister who lives in Boston, near where she teaches. Much later she learns that the ring holds a clue to the location of one of the manuscripts. Is it the forgery or the original? Fernando Smith, a guest lecturer on the tour and an expert on manuscripts is the only person who would know. He befriends Margery, steals one of the manuscripts from Rudy’s room, and sets out to find the other one.

In a chase through the streets of Salamanca at night, Margery is almost the third victim.

About the Author

Stella Clancy has been writing mystery novels during the last ten years. She formally taught acting at Cornell University where she acted in the Ithaca Repertory Theatre. She is also a painter and has shown in California and Tucson where she now resides. Finally, writing seems to be the occupation that has been most satisfying, and she has finished her fifth mystery. This is the first of three in the Ellen Kerry and Rosie Kelly series.