Amanda Dewees

The Last Serenade Amanda Dewees

When Sybil takes the stage again, murder plays the leading role. In September 1873, actress and spirit medium Sybil Ingram is looking forward to her new life as the wife of dashing violinist Roderick Brooke. But their plans for marriage are interrupted by a cry for help from Julia de Lioncourt, Roderick's former lover. Julia's letter implores him to come to Paris to rescue her from a blackmailer, Danton Fournier, who holds letters that can cause her ruin. When they arrive in Paris, the bewitching beauty proposes a daring plan: Sybil will masquerade as Julia onstage in a new melodrama while Julia, her alibi thus secured, recovers the letters from Fournier's home. Knowing that Roderick still harbors guilt over killing Julia's husband in a duel, Sybil agrees to the plan for his sake-even though it's all too clear that the scheming Julia wants Roderick back in her bed. Moreover, the theater seems to harbor a ghostly presence that may foretell disaster for the masquerade. Catastrophe strikes on the night of Sybil's performance when Fournier's body is discovered stabbed through the heart. Suddenly Sybil needs an alibi. But even if she is cleared of the murder, she must find a way to prevent suspicion from falling on Roderick as well-and determine whether Julia knows more about Fournier's death than she is admitting. Can Sybil's abilities as a spirit medium help her discover the truth before the real killer stops her?