The Name Beneath the Ink — An Alderwick Archive Mystery, Book 1 (Ebook)

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Some records are wrong. Some were made wrong on purpose. And some refuse to stay buried.

Municipal archivist Mara Venn has built her life around one rule: trust the evidence. A record means only what it can prove, and where a document came from matters as much as what it says. Inside the cold stone walls of Old Registry Hall, among the minute books, property cards, and quiet paperwork by which the town of Alderwick decides what did and did not happen, every fact is where it belongs and answerable to her if it isn't.

Then surveyor Julian Cross walks in out of the rain on a Monday morning, carrying a survey tube and a question about Resolution 58-12, a 1958 council measure tied to Venn Court and the old Lantern Court parcel. The resolution's wording doesn't match the ground. The boundary runs through buildings that were still standing years later. And the page itself is wrong in ways only an archivist would notice: a little too bright under the reading lamp, a second staple hole, a crescent of torn fiber at the binding edge.

Hours later, Julian is found dead inside the archive, leaving behind one chilling message:

Someone certified a lie.

As Mara picks up Julian's investigation, she uncovers missing files, altered records, conflicting property boundaries, and evidence of a deception buried for nearly seventy years. Worse, every thread seems to lead back toward her own family's name and the small brick storefronts the Venns have proudly owned for as long as anyone can remember. Mara has always believed the discipline of distrust has to be applied evenly, to a stranger's deed and to her own name alike. Now she will have to prove it.

But at exactly 12:13 every night, something impossible happens. Old documents begin revealing words that should no longer exist. And in the archive's glass cabinets, the reflection of a young woman appears: a woman whose name seems to have been erased from history.

Mara cannot photograph what she sees. She cannot submit it as evidence. She cannot explain it. The dead may show her where to look, but the living still have to prove what happened. With the help of her sharp-eyed colleague Tess Marlowe and the steady, skeptical Detective Jonah Pike, Mara follows the paper trail through accession registers, custody records, typewriter analysis, and a pasted-over strip of paper that may hold the truth an entire town agreed to forget.

With a killer hidden among the living and the dead pointing toward a forgotten injustice, Mara must uncover what really happened in 1958 before another piece of the truth disappears for good.

Because some lies do more than survive. They become part of the official record.

THE NAME BENEATH THE INK is Book One of The Alderwick Archive Mysteries, a clean, cozy historical mystery series where every case is solved by real evidence and every ghost only points the way. Perfect for readers who love small-town secrets, old documents, quiet libraries and archives, a touch of the supernatural, and a heroine who refuses to let a convenient lie stand.

Inside you'll find:

• A clever, fair-play mystery with clues hidden in the paperwork
• A haunting that points toward the truth without replacing it
• A warm small-town setting, from Old Registry Hall to the Lantern Cup across the street
• No graphic violence and no explicit content

The story continues in Book Two, THE LEDGER OF STATION NINE: a sealed 1927 transit ledger records a station that officially never existed. No map or council record acknowledges Station Nine. But one notation remains: SERVICE RESUMED.

Open the file. Question the ink. Seek the truth beneath.

Book 1 of The Alderwick Archive Mysteries.

Prefer a printed copy? It's also available in paperback and hardcover.