My ghost-inhabited apartment was one of six in a converted Victorian mansion, so I felt at home in the period.īefore the internet and Google, research was tedious and time-consuming, but also an adventure often resembling a treasure hunt. With no story and no characters, I hoped to find inspiration in my research. I arranged for a private tour the following week and my interest grew. One woman who worked at a 150-year-old hospital, claimed to have seen a ghost outside her upper floor office. By the time the hostess served dessert, laughter had subsided and conversation turned from career aspirations to all things spooky. Six women executives from the city’s business community gathered around a candlelit table for dinner. Dimensions: 8.50in - 5.50in - 0.72in - 0.The idea for Asylum, a dark suspense saga set in 18, began a few blocks from the posh 19th century Nook Farm located in Hartford, Connecticut’s Asylum Hill neighborhood, home to Samuel Clemens writing as Mark Twain, next door author Harriet Beecher Stowe, and notable neighbors.

ALA Book Club Central Pick: Historical Fiction. IPNE Book Awards Winner: Mystery Fiction. Set in periods of transition with the rise and fall of manufacturing, changing mores and folkways, and struggles for equal rights, Asylum prompts discussion of social and economic issues that remain relevant today. As she pursues clues from the Northeast to North Africa, she fails to see danger looming close to home.Ī Book Club favorite with Study Guide. After sacrificing an independent career on the brink of success, she assumes control of Delito's failing jewelry business while daring to expose its ghosts-a strange old woman, cryptic messages, backroom betrayals, and a rare antique key that might unlock the truth. Seventy five years later, Laura Delito inherits more than assets when her prestigious family's mysterious past comes knocking. Beneath the noted asylum's polish of respectability, a wicked villainy hides in dank shadows-and Maggie fears she will be its next victim. She's dragged from her family's estate and locked in an asylum to ensure her silence.

In 1899 while her father travels abroad, twelve-year-old Maggie Delito, daughter of the wealthy Northeast industrialist, unwittingly witnesses a shocking scandal. I've already recommended Asylum to my mother.' Even as I was doing other things my mind kept going back to the characters. 'A genealogist's dream that weaves the mysterious threads of a tragic past with an emotional present.

A dark thriller with intrigue, danger and unforgettable characters. Past and present collide when a family secret endangers a reluctant heiress bent on solving the mystery behind her grandmother's past.

Asylum by Kathryn Orzech