by Darcie Chan
First published 2014
Mary McAllister lives alone in her grand mansion, cut off from the small town of Mill River below. Years pass with no visitors except Father O'Brien, the only person who knows why she stays hidden. The priest carries the weight of Mary's secrets, understanding what drives her isolation from the community she once knew. As time moves forward, the truth Mary has guarded so carefully begins to surface. Her hidden past threatens to spill into the present, forcing both Mary and the townspeople to confront what has been buried for so long. When her secrets finally emerge, they will reshape not just Mary's life but the entire fabric of Mill River. The revelations will test the bonds between neighbors and challenge everything the community thought it knew about the woman in the mansion.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: secrets, small-town
Setting: Mill River
Period: Years
577 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Press