The Painted Ladies — Sylvia Dickey Smith

Old houses . . . do they celebrate happy times with us? Do they hurt when we hurt? Or do they have their own stories to whisper in the night, their own dark secrets to hide?

In this 5th book in the award-winning Sidra Smart mystery series, slightly psychic private investigator Sidra Smart has a new female client who has inherited not one but three mysterious Victorian houses in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The moment Sidra walks into the Painted Ladies, she senses something is off kilter. Is it just that the houses were commonly known as brothels in the early 1900s, in the days when the likes of Al Capone and other ne'er-do-wells spent much wanton time in the resort town?

As autumn transforms to winter, Sidra needs to protect her client, young Belle Anderson, from being drawn too deeply into a tangled web of odd stories, spectral visitors, unsettling mysteries, and possible evil deeds committed.

As the snow falls, the two women, with their faithful sidekicks (dogs Slider and Jenkins), must try to get to the bottom of what lies beneath the facade of the beautifully painted Victorians.