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PAGE TURNER
requires a
minimum of 12 guests.
World-famous
gothic romance novelist Stella Wincott
is holding a lavish party in the Wincott
mansion to celebrate the release of her new novel, The Noise
Upstairs, about a woman who discovers that her husband has been
abducted and is being kept in the attic of a historic hotel—a
typical Stella Wincott plot.
Stella has been rising steadily in
popularity in the genre since her debut fifteen years ago.
Since she writes two or three novels a year, there must be a
reason she’s gathered her closest friends around her and has
spared no expense in putting together the party—there’s even an
ice sculpture, a dripping replica of Michelangelo's David in
the middle of the dining table.
It’s a dark and stormy night,
and the snow is blowing so hard that Stella and Alan have
extended invitations for all their guests to stay the night.
Everyone has accepted. Midway through cocktails, a woman named
Nina Hart knocks at the door. Her car has died at the side of
the road, and she needs to use the telephone to call a towing
company.
Stella's husband Alan has just taken
Nina to the kitchen to find a spare phone when Stella stands up
from the divan she’s been enthroned on: “I have an
announcement—“ she begins.
And then the lights go out. …
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