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The bestselling author of A Hundred Summers brings the Roaring
Twenties brilliantly to life in this enchanting and compulsively
readable tale of intrigue, romance, and scandal in New York
Society, brimming with lush atmosphere, striking characters, and
irresistible charm. As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New
York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and
Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: she's fallen in
love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome
aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable
man, Octavian is devoted to the beautiful socialite of a certain
age and wants to marry her. While times are changing and she does
adore the Boy, divorce for a woman of Theresa's wealth and social
standing is out of the question, and there is no need; she has an
understanding with Sylvo, her generous and well-respected
philanderer husband. But their relationship subtly shifts when her
bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the sweet
younger daughter of a newly wealthy inventor. Engaging a
longstanding family tradition, Theresa enlists the Boy to act as
her brother's cavalier, presenting the family's diamond rose ring
to Ox's intended, Miss Sophie Fortescue--and to check into the
background of the little-known Fortescue family. When Octavian
meets Sophie, he falls under the spell of the pretty ingenue, even
as he uncovers a shocking family secret. As the love triangle of
Theresa, Octavian, and Sophie progresses, it transforms into a saga
of divided loyalties, dangerous revelations, and surprising twists
that will lead to a shocking transgression . . . and eventually
force Theresa to make a bittersweet choice. Full of the glamour,
wit and delicious twists that are the hallmarks of Beatriz
Williams' fiction and alternating between Sophie's spirited voice
and Theresa's vibrant timbre, A Certain Age is a beguiling
reinterpretation of Richard Strauss's comic opera Der
Rosenkavalier, set against the sweeping decadence of Gatsby's New
York.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age, a
deliciously spicy new Jazz Age adventure and the first book of a
breathtaking new trilogy by bestselling author Beatriz Williams.
Two generations of women are brought together inside a Greenwich
Village apartment --a flapper hiding an extraordinary past, and a
modern-day Manattanite forced to start her life anew. When she
discovers her banker husband has been harboring a secret life, Ella
Gilbert escapes her SoHo loft for a studio in Greenwich Village.
Her charismatic musician neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of
the basement after midnight, when a symphony of mysterious noise
strikes up--laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano, the occasional
bloodcurdling scream--even though the space has been empty for
decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the basement was home to one
of the city's most notorious speakeasies. In 1924, Geneva "Gin"
Kelly, a quick-witted flapper from the hills of western Maryland,
is a regular at this Village hideaway. Caught up in a raid, Gin
lands in the office of Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson,
who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather, Duke Kelly, one
of the biggest bootleggers in Appalachia. But Gin is nobody's fool.
She strikes a risky bargain with the taciturn, straight-arrow
Revenue agent, and their alliance rattles Manhattan society to its
foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited
redhead. As Ella unravels the strange history of her new
building--and the family thread that connects her to Geneva
Kelly--she senses the Jazz Age spirit of her exuberant predecessor
invading her own shy nature, in ways that will transform her
existence in the wicked city.
"Grand and gripping...shot through with suspense, romance, and
glorious, beach-laden locales. I could not put it down."--Marie
Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Mitford Affair A
ravishing summer read from New York Times bestseller Beatriz
Williams, sweeping readers back to a mid-century New England rich
with secrets and Cold War intrigue. June 1946. As the residents of
Winthrop Island prepare for the first summer season after the
sacrifice of war, a glamorous new figure moves into the guest
cottage at Summerly, the idyllic seaside estate of the wealthy
Peabody family. To Emilia Winthrop, daughter of Summerly’s
year-round caretaker and a descendant of the island’s
settlers, Olive Rainsford opens a window into a world of shining
possibility. While Emilia spent the war years caring for her
incapacitated mother, Olive traveled the world, married fascinating
men, and involved herself in political causes. She’s also the
beloved aunt of the two surviving Peabody sons, Amory and Shep,
with whom Emilia has a tangled romantic history. As the summer
wears on, Emilia develops a deep rapport with Olive, who urges her
to leave the island for a life of adventure, while romance blossoms
with the sturdy and honorable Shep. But the heady promise of
Peabody patronage is blown apart by the arrival of Sumner Fox, an
FBI agent who demands Emilia’s help to capture a Soviet agent
who’s transmitting vital intelligence on the West’s atomic
weapon program from somewhere inside the Summerly estate. April
1954. Eight years later, Summerly is boarded up and Emilia has
rebuilt her shattered life as a professor at Wellesley College,
when shocking news arrives from Washington—the traitor she helped
convict is about to be swapped for an American spy imprisoned in
the Soviet Union, but with a mysterious condition only Emilia can
fulfill. A reluctant Emilia is summoned to CIA headquarters, where
she’s forced to confront the harrowing consequences of her
actions that fateful summer, and a choice that could destroy the
Peabody family—and Emilia’s chance for redemption—all over
again.
"The Golden Hour is pure golden delight Beatriz Williams is at the
top of her game." --Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author
of The Alice Network Beatriz Williams, the New York Times
bestselling author of The Summer Wives, is back with another hot
summer read; a dazzling epic of World War II in which a beautiful
young "society reporter" is sent to the Bahamas, a haven of spies,
traitors, and the infamous Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The
Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora "Lulu" Randolph arrives in the
Bahamas to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York
society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable
appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that
glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British
monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing
backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a
colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu
imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess's social
circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands' political
and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the
glister of Wallis and Edward's marriage lies an ugly--and even
treasonous--reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with
spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of
it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and
murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu
falls in love. Then Nassau's wealthiest man is murdered in one of
the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup
reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a
trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick
Thorpe's complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a
wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen. The
stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this
extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human
courage, set against a shocking true crime . . . and the rise and
fall of a legendary royal couple.
The New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age transports
readers to sunny Florida in this lush and enthralling historical
novel--an enchanting blend of love, suspense, betrayal, and
redemption set among the rumrunners and scoundrels of
Prohibition-era Cocoa Beach. Burdened by a dark family secret,
Virginia Fortescue flees her oppressive home in New York City for
the battlefields of World War I France. While an ambulance driver
for the Red Cross, she meets a charismatic British army surgeon
whose persistent charm opens her heart to the possibility of love.
As the war rages, Virginia falls into a passionate affair with the
dashing Captain Simon Fitzwilliam, only to discover that his past
has its own dark secrets--secrets that will damage their eventual
marriage and propel her back across the Atlantic to the sister and
father she left behind. Five years later, in the early days of
Prohibition, the newly widowed Virginia Fitzwilliam arrives in the
tropical boomtown of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to settle her husband's
estate. Despite the evidence, Virginia does not believe Simon
perished in the fire that destroyed the seaside home he built for
her and their young daughter. Separated from her husband since the
early days of their marriage, the headstrong Virginia plans to
uncover the truth, for the sake of the daughter Simon never met.
Simon's brother and sister welcome her with open arms and introduce
her to a dazzling new world of citrus groves, white beaches,
bootleggers, and Prohibition agents. But Virginia senses a
predatory presence lurking beneath the irresistible, hedonistic
surface of this coastal oasis. The more she learns about Simon and
his mysterious business interests, the more she fears that the
dangers that surrounded Simon now threaten her and their daughter's
life as well.
From the New York Times bestselling author: a dazzling WWII epic
spanning London, New York and the Bahamas and the most infamous
couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor The Bahamas,
1941. Newly-widowed Lulu Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate
the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine whose
readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly
brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. But
beneath the glitter of Wallis and Edward's marriage lies an ugly -
and even treasonous - reality. In the middle of it all stands
Benedict Thorpe: a handsome scientist of tremendous charm and murky
national loyalties. When Nassau's wealthiest man is murdered in one
of the most notorious cases of the century, Lulu embarks on a
journey to discover the truth behind the crime. The stories of two
unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of
sacrifice, human love and human courage, set against a shocking
true crime... and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.
Don't miss the gripping new book from the international bestseller
- the story of two sisters caught up in Cold War espionage In 1948,
Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat
husband and their two children. Four years later, Ruth Macallister
receives a postcard from the estranged twin sister she hasn't seen
since 1940. Since that one catastrophic summer in Rome, as war was
engulfing Europe and Iris was falling desperately in love... Within
days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of Agent Fox
in a precarious plot to extract her sister from behind the Iron
Curtain. But the truth behind Iris's marriage threatens to unravel
everything, and as the sisters race to safety, a dogged Soviet KGB
officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice...
Gin Kelly, the wicked redhead, is back! Readers will delight in
next installment of the Wicked City series by New York Times
bestselling author Beatriz Williams. June 1925. Audacious
Appalachian flapper Geneva "Gin" Kelly prepares to trade her
high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall,
a steadfast Prohibition agent who happens to hail from one of New
York's most distinguished families. But just as wedding bells
chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket-and
Anson's mortal enemy-turns up murdered at a society funeral, and
their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze
that sends Anson back undercover...and into the jaws of a trap from
which not even Gin can rescue him. As violence explodes around her,
Gin must summon all her considerable moxie to trace the tentacles
of this sinister organization back to their shocking source, and
face down a legendary American family at a rigged game it has no
intention of losing. June 1998. When Ella Dommerich's
ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up
dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle in
order to settle old family scores, she couldn't be less
enthusiastic. Pregnant Ella's recently ditched her unfaithful
husband and settled into cozy-if complicated-domesticity with her
almost-too-good-to-be-true musician boyfriend, Hector. But then the
Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella's uncovered
in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble
out of the venerable woodwork. With the help of her ex-husband and
her mysterious connection to a certain redheaded flapper, Ella digs
up more than mere dirt...only to discover herself standing alone
between a legendarily ruthless family and the prize it's sought for
generations. What ugly secrets lurk in the opulent enclaves-and
bank accounts--of America's richest families? And can two
determined women from two different generations thwart the
murderous legacy of the demon liquor?
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An engrossing and sumptuous tale,
this novel is a fantastic spring read." - Good Morning America From
the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren
Willig, and Karen White-a novel of money and secrets set among the
famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a
century from the Gilded Age to the present day. "Three stories
elegantly intertwine in this clever and stylish tale of murder and
family lies...This crackerjack novel offers three mysteries for the
price of one." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) 2019: Andie
Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion
Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America's most
lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest
project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in
Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America's gilded
class-famous for the lavish "summer cottages" of Vanderbilts and
Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who
still lives in the mansion, Lucia "Lucky" Sprague, will only allow
the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to
her. Two, nobody touches the mansion's ruined boathouse. 1899:
Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss
Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose
stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place
among Newport's elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married
off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to
polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively
demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she's hiding in plain
sight at Sprague Hall. 1958: Lucia "Lucky" Sprague has always felt
like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother-the
American-born Princess di Conti-fled Mussolini's Italy, it seemed
natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but
hadn't seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky's
lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the
yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, the alcoholic scion of
her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion's old
boathouse will uncover a devastating truth...and change everything
she thought she knew about her past. As the cameras roll on Mansion
Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets the
Spragues thought would stay hidden forever....
The New York Times bestselling authors of The Glass Ocean and The
Forgotten Room return with a glorious historical adventure that
moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years
of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge
at Paris' legendary Ritz hotel. The heiress . . . The Resistance
fighter . . . The widow . . . Three women whose fates are joined by
one splendid hotel France, 1914. As war breaks out, Aurelie becomes
trapped on the wrong side of the front with her father, Comte
Sigismund de Courcelles. When the Germans move into their family's
ancestral estate, using it as their headquarters, Aurelie discovers
she knows the German Major's aide de camp, Maximilian Von
Sternburg. She and the dashing young officer first met during
Aurelie's debutante days in Paris. Despite their conflicting
loyalties, Aurelie and Max's friendship soon deepens into love, but
betrayal will shatter them both, driving Aurelie back to Paris and
the Ritz- the home of her estranged American heiress mother, with
unexpected consequences. France, 1942. Raised by her indomitable,
free-spirited American grandmother in the glamorous Hotel Ritz,
Marguerite "Daisy" Villon remains in Paris with her daughter and
husband, a Nazi collaborator, after France falls to Hitler. At
first reluctant to put herself and her family at risk to assist her
grandmother's Resistance efforts, Daisy agrees to act as a courier
for a skilled English forger known only as Legrand, who creates
identity papers for Resistance members and Jewish refugees. But as
Daisy is drawn ever deeper into Legrand's underground network,
committing increasingly audacious acts of resistance for the sake
of the country-and the man-she holds dear, she uncovers a
devastating secret . . . one that will force her to commit the
ultimate betrayal, and to confront at last the shocking
circumstances of her own family history. France, 1964. For Barbara
"Babs" Langford, her husband, Kit, was the love of her life. Yet
their marriage was haunted by a mysterious woman known only as La
Fleur. On Kit's death, American lawyer Andrew "Drew" Bowdoin
appears at her door. Hired to find a Resistance fighter turned
traitor known as "La Fleur," the investigation has led to Kit
Langford. Curious to know more about the enigmatic La Fleur, Babs
joins Drew in his search, a journey of discovery that that takes
them to Paris and the Ritz-and to unexpected places of the heart. .
. .
"The Golden Hour is pure golden delight Beatriz Williams is at the
top of her game." --Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author
of The Alice Network Beatriz Williams, the New York Times
bestselling author of The Summer Wives, is back with another hot
summer read; a dazzling epic of World War II in which a beautiful
young "society reporter" is sent to the Bahamas, a haven of spies,
traitors, and the infamous Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The
Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora "Lulu" Randolph arrives in the
Bahamas to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York
society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable
appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that
glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British
monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing
backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a
colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu
imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess's social
circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands' political
and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the
glister of Wallis and Edward's marriage lies an ugly--and even
treasonous--reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with
spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of
it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and
murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu
falls in love. Then Nassau's wealthiest man is murdered in one of
the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup
reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a
trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick
Thorpe's complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a
wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen. The
stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this
extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human
courage, set against a shocking true crime . . . and the rise and
fall of a legendary royal couple.
A captivating Cold War page-turner. -- Real Simple The New York
Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives returns with a
gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and
family devotion. In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from
her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two
children. The world is shocked by the family's sensational
disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence
service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the
West's most vital secrets? Four years later, Ruth Macallister
receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn't seen since
their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war
engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an
enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within
days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of
counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to
extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain. But the complex
truth behind Iris's marriage defies Ruth's understanding, and as
the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces
them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable
loyalties.
Top voices in historical fiction deliver an unforgettable
collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War
I-featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer
Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather
Webb. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh
month...November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting,
the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For
soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with
new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have
been lost. As families come back together, lovers reunite, and
strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell.
In this moving anthology, nine authors share stories of love,
strength, and renewal as hope takes root in a fall of poppies.
Featuring: Jessica Brockmole Hazel Gaynor Evangeline Holland Marci
Jefferson Kate Kerrigan Jennifer Robson Beatriz Williams Lauren
Willig Heather Webb
As the 1938 hurricane approaches Rhode Island, another storm brews
in this novel from the author of "The Secret Life of Violet
Grant."
"Blends history, romance, and social commentary into...much more
than a summer guilty pleasure" (Connecticut Post)
Memorial Day, 1938
Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family
has summered for generations. It's an escape not only from New
York's social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her.
Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since
childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer.
But this summer is different. Budgie and Nick Greenwald--Lily's
former best friend and former fiance--have arrived, too, and
Seaview's elite are abuzz. Under Budgie's glamorous influence, Lily
is seduced into a complicated web of renewed friendship and
dangerous longing.
As a cataclysmic hurricane churns north through the Atlantic, and
uneasy secrets slowly reveal themselves, Lily and Nick must
confront an emotional storm that will change their worlds
forever...
A PEOPLE STYLEWATCH MUST-READ
Includes a Reader's Guide
The dazzling narrator of The Wicked City brings her mesmerizing
voice and indomitable spirit to another Jazz Age tale of
rumrunners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern
seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia. 1924.
Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled
south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent
Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy.
But paradise is short-lived. Marshall is reinstated to the agency
with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on
the high seas, from which he promptly disappears. Gin hurries north
to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by
Marshall's desperate mother. 1998. Ella Dommerich has finally
settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same
apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago...and
continues to make her presence known. Having quit her ethically
problematic job at an accounting firm, cut ties with her unfaithful
ex-husband, and begun an epic love affair with Hector, her musician
neighbor, Ella's eager to piece together the history of the
mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare
vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before she
disappeared. Two women, two generations, two urgent quests. But as
Ginger and Ella track down their separate quarries with increasing
desperation, the mysteries consuming them take on unsettling echoes
of each other, and both women will require all their strength and
ingenuity to outwit a conspiracy spanning decades.
From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room
comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that
links the lives of three women across a century-two deep in the
past, one in the present-to the doomed passenger liner, RMS
Lusitania. May 2013 Her finances are in dire straits and
bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for
her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to
her Alzheimer's-stricken mother and opens an old chest that
belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania
was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could
change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to
enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of
Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the
long-ago catastrophe. . . . April 1915 Southern belle Caroline
Telfair Hochstetter's marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive
industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied
with business . . . and something else that she can't quite put a
finger on. She's hoping a trip to London in Lusitania's lavish
first-class accommodations will help them reconnect-but she can't
ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who
turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing
for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a
bystander, and take charge of her own life. . . . Tessa Fairweather
is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to
Devon. Or at least, that's her story. Tessa has never left the
United States and her English accent is a hasty fake. She's really
Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can
steal and forge just about anything. But she's had enough. Her
partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist
aboard the Lusitania, they'll finally leave the game behind. Tess
desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling
there's something about this job that isn't as it seems. . . . As
the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time
to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives .
. . and history itself.
From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room
comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that
links the lives of three women across a century--two deep in the
past, one in the present--to the doomed passenger liner, RMS
Lusitania. May 2013 Her finances are in dire straits and
bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for
her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to
her Alzheimer's-stricken mother and opens an old chest that
belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania
was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could
change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to
enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of
Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the
long-ago catastrophe. . . . April 1915 Southern belle Caroline
Telfair Hochstetter's marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive
industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied
with business . . . and something else that she can't quite put a
finger on. She's hoping a trip to London in Lusitania's lavish
first-class accommodations will help them reconnect--but she can't
ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who
turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing
for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a
bystander, and take charge of her own life. . . . Tessa Fairweather
is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to
Devon. Or at least, that's her story. Tessa has never left the
United States and her English accent is a hasty fake. She's really
Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can
steal and forge just about anything. But she's had enough. Her
partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist
aboard the Lusitania, they'll finally leave the game behind. Tess
desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling
there's something about this job that isn't as it seems. . . . As
the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time
to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives .
. . and history itself.
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