When professional house-restorer Kelly Mason inherits a historic bungalow from an unknown benefactor, she plans to fix up the house and donate it to the community. But when she visits the place, she feels an unexpected emotional pull and decides to move in. As she works to restore the house, Kelly senses a ghostly presence guiding her to some startling discoveries about her own past. Her coworkers, the McCarthys, and especially their enigmatically appealing friend Nathaniel, encourage her to unlock her history and find the home and family she’s never known. But to do so, Kelly must open her rational mind to the unexplainable and her bricked-up heart to forgiveness and love.
Praise for The Vestibule of Heaven
"I loved this book. It's like one of those DIY book nooks—detailed and small and intricate, but commanding the viewer's full attention. The setting is the real hero here. How can Katherine Bolger Hyde make a building as interesting as a fallible, lovable group of flesh-and-blood characters? I don't know, but she's done it. The story works on multiple levels, where the restoration of a house echoes the rebuilding of a life from the shards of tragedy and trauma. Both the tragedy and the trauma are heart-breakingly real, but the power of love that transforms them into healing is even more heart-breaking. A true Tolkienian eucatastrophe, but in the setting of a sleepy California town. I couldn't put it down. Every time I stopped, I wanted to go back to visit the house, the characters, and the author. Highly, highly recommended." -Deacon Nicholas Kotar, author of the Raven Son series
About the Author: Katherine Bolger Hyde is the author of the Crime with the Classics traditional mystery series (Minotaur and Severn House, 2016–2024), the standalone domestic thriller After He’s Gone (Severn House), and several children’s books for Ancient Faith Publishing, most recently Brave, Faithful, and True: Children of the Bible (2023). She has been an editor with Ancient Faith and its predecessor, Conciliar Press, since 1993. Katherine lives in Vancouver, Washington, with her husband, John, and two only slightly mystical cats. She attends St. Nicholas Church (OCA) in Portland.