A Day With Clara Quinn by Allison Kingsley

I’m Clara Quinn. My cousin, Stephanie, owns the Raven’s Nest bookstore, where I work. It’s on the main street of a little coastal town in Maine, called Finn’s Harbor. Molly works there, too. She’s younger than Steffie and me, and knows a lot about paranormal stuff.

Stephanie’s a paranormal freak, and most of the books in her store are about vampires, ghosts, and fantasy worlds. Her favorite author is Edgar Allan Poe. There’s a stuffed raven sitting on a light fixture in the bookstore, and a life-sized figure of a fortune-teller complete with crystal ball. That should tell you something.

Stephanie and I rescued the fortune teller from a garbage dump. We were always doing weird stuff like that when we were kids. We grew up practically joined at the hip.

I inherited this spooky thing called the Quinn Sense. Not everyone in the Quinn family has it. It’s a kind of sixth sense, where I get visions past, present and future. I can also read people’s minds and interpret dreams. Not all the time. That’s the problem. It’s rarely there when I need it, and it pops up when I don’t. Usually at a very awkward moment. Unreliable, that’s what it is. A pain in the neck.

Stephanie didn’t inherit it. She desperately wishes she had. I desperately wish I hadn’t. Though I have to admit, it comes in useful now and then. Like right now.

Rick Sanders owns the hardware store across the street. Rick and I are good friends. I think he’d like to be more, but thanks to a really bad experience with a jerk when I was living in New York, I’m keeping a safe distance between the two of us.

I’m taking care of his dog, Tatters. When Tatters stands on his hind legs, he’s almost as tall as I am. I’m five feet, ten. That’s a big dog. He’s pretty opinionated. How do I know? I can read his mind. Sometimes. Yeah, that’s weird.

Anyway, getting back to Rick. He’s in big trouble. A dead guy was found in the back of his pickup. The cops think Rick killed him. It’s going to take a heavy dose of the Quinn Sense to help me, Stephanie, Molly and of course, Tatters, to get him out of this one.

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You can read more about Clara in A Sinister Sense, the second book in the “Raven’s Nest Bookstore” mystery series. The first book in the series is Mind Over Murder.

** Thanks to the publisher, I have one (1) copy of A SINISTER SENSE to give away. Contest open to residents of the US only. Contest ends July 13. Leave a valid-email address with your comment. The book will be shipped directly from the publisher. **

Meet the author
Allison Kingsley is the pseudonym of Doreen Roberts Hight, who is also known as Kate Kingsbury, the author of The Pennyfoot Hotel mysteries, a historical series set in Edwardian England. Doreen has published over sixty books, many of them national best sellers. She lives on a golf course in Oregon with her husband, and a rat terrier who thinks she’s Great Dane.

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.