Christine — Marie Piper

Each Sunday for ten years, the young and prominent Maidens of Mapleton have met in the town schoolhouse and told each other all. A town with a violent past, now-booming Mapleton dotes on its favorite daughters: Christine, a performer at the town's beautiful music hall, Mina, the daughter of the newspaper owner, Esme, a ward of the church and Lucy and Elizabeth, daughters of the widower Mayor-one ladylike, the other a hellion. Slowly, the truth begins to cloud. The pieces of the past don't add up, and familiar tales and faces fail to comfort. In this five novella series from Marie Piper, comprised of Old West adaptations of gothic/horror tales, the Maidens find their friendships tested, fall in (and out) of love, and are forced to unravel the mystery of that one terrible day. What really happened on the day of the Mapleton Massacre? In the first installment, CHRISTINE, there's a music hall under new management, a mysterious patron, a dancing girl turned soloist, and murder to boot. It's a Western romance tribute to a story that has delighted for decades, this time with a mystery girl squad!