“The Ghost of Annie Minnes: Tales of the Royal Hotel & Prince Edward County” ~ Tanya M Cooper

Annie Minnes is struck by a drunk driver in Prince Edward County in 1941. Only her mahogany shoes and her journals, tossed in a burn barrel behind the Royal Hotel, are witnesses to her life. Left as a newborn in 1900 and growing up at the True Blue Orphanage, who can imagine that her journals contain grand adventures, scandalous secrets, romantic trysts, and murderous accounts? Together, with her best friend Gertie, in a time when women are not considered citizens, they break all the rules of convention by studying Indigenous medicines, following astrology, and practicing seances. Annie survives a tumultuous childhood, a war to end all wars, and a global pandemic only to realize the greatest threat is closest to home. She has to decide if learning the secrets of the past, is worth risking her future.