Secret in No. 19: A Novel

In this thrilling debut mystery, two strangers band together to discover the truth behind the death of a teenager, but some secrets want to stay hidden…

Albert Hodge is ready for his life to end.

Since losing his beloved Beth, and with his son now living in Australia, he has retreated to the quiet routine of Pear Tree Place retirement village—enduring the meddlesome kindness of his assigned “buddy,” Judith Merriweather, and the long days of organized activity as he waits out the clock of life.

Until Sylvia Carraway arrives.

Much younger than the average resident, Sylvia smokes, drinks, and plays Rachmaninoff at window-rattling volume. She’s disruptive, magnetic, and everything Albert has been trying to avoid. But when he’s reluctantly appointed as Sylvia’s “buddy,” he becomes entangled in a decades-old mystery: the unsolved murder of Sylvia’s younger sister. Sylvia believes a killer lives among them and she will stop at nothing to deliver the justice she has waited decades for.

But Albert soon discovers everything is not what it seems. Sylvia has been lying to him and could be just as culpable of terrible acts as the person she is chasing. As dark pasts surface and alliances shift, Albert finds himself—in his winter years—an unlikely detective with a very serious decision to make.