The Mystery of Clara Bell

A Katie Drew Mystery

By: Paula Porter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I’m Katie Drew, barista extraordinaire, and in Perdido Beach I’ve learned two things fast. Secrets do not stay buried, and the truth always leaves a trail.

When Dawn Rivest, our new librarian, finds a battered old hardback with a checkout pocket and a due date that should not exist, it pulls us straight into the town’s coldest case. Clara Bell vanished in 1993, seventeen years old, and the story everyone repeats is the one they want believed. But the scraped-off borrower name, a retired library stamp code, and whispers about a sealed corridor in the old stacks say Clara’s last days were not as simple as a girl who ran away.

With Daisy at my side, I start asking questions that make people go quiet. The deeper we dig, the uglier it gets. Missing records. Late-night access logs. A shadowy figure who seems to know our next move before we do. Someone has spent decades managing what Perdido Beach remembers, and what it forgets.

Now the same pressure that swallowed Clara is turning toward us.

Because the truth is still in that corridor, and somebody will do anything to keep the door locked.