The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library  cleo coyle writing as Alice Kimberly
I just finished this book and it was delightful. It had all the stuff I like in a book, a old house, a old library with fireplace and old pictures and books, a mystery, and a character who is not young and beautiful. I hate young and beautiful characters. YUK. The mansion was called prospero House a four story mansion, A gothic style portico   climbed up three stone steps that led to the mansion's carved front doors  flanking the entrance were two bronzed mermaids with long flowing hair and angelic faces their scabrous tails encrusted by a green paina The house had the pervasive smell of mildew, the oppressive feelings of cold and dampness, the surronoundings more resmebled a crumbling tenement tha a century=old newport mansion   the interior entranceway was dominated by a grand staircase that flowed down from a second-floor balcony in a gentle curve the carpeted steps obviously a deep burgundy at one time had become a muddy brown the upper wings are sealed off   we stepped through the the archway with carved oak supports and found ourselves in the manor's library, illuminated by the glicking fire in a massive stone hearth, the library was nearly the size oo it boasted a vaulted ceining with oak cross beams and a tall grandfather click which ticked loudly in one corner its offly shaped pendulumswinging in a arc behing cut leaded glass  Thousands of books lined the dark oak shelves alondg one shadown wall near the clock some portraits had been strategically hung. the fireplace was an oversized smoke stained hearth carved to resemble the gaping fanged mouth of a gigantic gargoyle..

What a great discription..An old friend of bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure's Aunt Sadie gives her a rare collection of Edgar Allan Poe's complete works. Shortly after giving Sadie the collection, Peter Chelsey is found dead. The police say it was an accident. Pen has her doubts, but doesn't want to get involved in yet another murder investigation. But when someone turns up dead shortly after buying one of the books in the collection, Pen is accused of stealing the book back since there is a rumor going around that there is a code contained in the collection that leads to a treasure. Pen wants to clear her name and sets out to do so with the help of the ghost of Jack Shepard, a hard-boiled PI who died in the 1940's. When she and then a friend of hers who is trying to solve the code are attacked, Pen knows she needs to find the killer before someone else is murdered.