New Release | Whistle While You Lurk by Judith Sterling #newrelease #gothiccozymystery #paranormalcozymystery #gothiccozy #giveaway
- N. N. Light
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Title – Whistle While You Lurk
Author – Judith Sterling
Genre – gothic cozy mystery
Book Blurb
Listen for the Whistler reads the title of the gothic romance Gwyneth Camm discovers on the foyer floor. Her deceased Aunt Ethel is at it again, guiding Gwyn to enter the story and stand in for its 1970s heroine.
While traveling abroad, said heroine tours the centuries-old home of an English baronet and notes her uncanny resemblance to a supposed seventeenth-century witch in a family portrait. She soon becomes the baronet’s guest and a target of the malevolent force known as “the whistler.” Gwyn must face the danger head-on, for solving the mystery is her ticket home.
Excerpt
Show’s over, I guess. With a sigh, I strolled back to my tower, clicked on the flashlight, and spiraled down the stairs. At the bottom, I pushed on the door to my room. It wouldn’t open.
What the hell? I tried again. Still, it didn’t budge.
My heart beat faster. Someone must’ve bolted the door from the inside!
I frowned at the steadfast door. Who had bolted it against me? A person or a ghost? Or could it have been a devil summoned centuries ago?
Why had they done it? To scare me? To trap me on the roof? Perhaps they were saying in no uncertain terms I wasn’t welcome…not in that room and not at Dunwich.
Well, too bad! I had nowhere else to go, at least not until I saw this plot through and bared every secret hidden in its underbelly.
I shivered and rubbed my arms. The temperature was dropping. I didn’t relish the idea of spending the night on the rooftop, but sadly, no one would miss me till morning. No one would hear if I pounded on the door either. I was well and truly stuck, unless I could find another way in.
The other towers!
Hope pushed me up the stairs again and across the length of the roof to the back tower directly opposite mine. Grateful for the beam of my flashlight, I entered the tower and descended its spiral steps with care. One twisted ankle was injury enough for me!
A wooden door waited at the bottom. Did it lead to a storeroom? Another bedroom?
I knocked, but not hard. I didn’t want to startle anyone inside.
In response, the door moved slightly. It must not be bolted. I counted to ten, and when no one came to the door, I pushed it open and stepped into the glare of electric light.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” a shirtless Crispin demanded. He still wore his brown corduroy slacks and his shoes, but that was all.
Heat flooded my cheeks at the sight of his lean torso. “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Didn’t care to knock?”
“I did knock, but apparently, you didn’t hear.” I gestured to the stairwell behind me. “I didn’t know this led to your room. I climbed up my own tower, and then someone decided to—”
“I do love those little rose soaps in the loo,” Davina said as she entered the room, eyeing the backs of her lily-white hands. “I really must—” She noticed me standing there, and her voice died…for all of two seconds. “What the bloody hell are you doing here?” Her gaze shot to Crispin.
He held up his hands. “It isn’t my doing.” Hastily, he crossed to the bed, grabbed the white shirt laid atop it, and put it on.
“I was exploring,” I said.
She crossed her arms. “Exploring what? My fiancé?”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
Free to read on Kindle Unlimited!
Giveaway -
In celebration of the release of Whistle While You Lurk, Judith Sterling is giving away an ebook bundle of Trip the Light Phantasmic (book one) and Let No Clan Put Asunder (book two).
Open to US residents only.
Runs April 22 - May 22, 2025
Drawing will be held on May 23, 2025
Author Biography
Judith Sterling is an award-winning author whose love of history and passion for the paranormal infuse everything she writes. Through gothic cozy mystery (The Gothic Gwyn Mysteries), medieval/time travel romance (The Novels of Ravenwood), and young adult paranormal fantasy (the Guardians of Erin series), she loves to whisk readers away from their troubles and remind them of the hidden magic all around us.
Her nonfiction books, written under Judith Marshall, have been translated into multiple languages. She has an MA in linguistics and a BA in history, with a minor in British Studies. Born in that sauna called Florida, she craved cooler climes, and once the travel bug bit, she lived in England, Scotland, Sweden, Wisconsin, Virginia, and on the island of Nantucket. She currently lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband and their identical twin sons.
Social Media Links
Website – https://judithmarshallauthor.com/