The Cove of Fear — Virginia K. Smiley

An uninspiring job in the advertising office of a jewelry manufacturing company prompted twenty-two-year-old Meg Kent to ponder more enjoyable means of developing her artistic talent. Her pleasurable memories of a family vacation at sunny Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, were the basis of an impulsive letter to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. Surely seascapes would delight her painter's eye more than earrings and baubles!

It was with happy anticipation that Meg accepted the proffered hospitality of Mrs. Elvira Wilson. With her savings tucked in her purse and her painting supplies loaded into her car, Meg arrived at Wilson Manor, a stately old mansion perched high on the rocks above picturesque Peggy's Cove. The charm of the elegant estate was further enhanced by the gallery that housed the fabulous art collection of Mr. Wilson, a retired businessman. And as if this weren't good fortuned enough, darkly handsome Steve Livingston, a talented painter of advanced skill, volunteered to give Meg lessons.

The first dark shaft to shadow the promising radiance of Meg's summer was the quickly glimpsed headline on a recent local newspaper: "COVE ARTIST'S DEATH INVESTIGATED. MURDER HINTED." Though the local residents mysteriously refused to discuss the incident with her, the repercussion of the sinister, inexplicable crime were to alter the course of Meg's carefree summer, encircling her with threats as ominous as brooding thunderclouds over the sparkling waters of Peggy's Cove.