First published 2026
Claire sits jobless and disgraced after her online skincare advice sent someone to the hospital. Then police knock on her door asking about a 1970s cold case involving her mother Kath. Claire demands the truth from her mother, who responds with the full saga of the Mounsey women. The story begins with Claire's great-great-grandmother Fanny, who made headlines in 1915 by washing ashore in England nearly a year after her ship sank. Fanny's daughter Sarah traveled to collect her mother on the Lusitania and survived that sinking too. Their remarkable survivals launched them to vaudeville fame and Midwestern celebrity status. Kath's sprawling tale moves from a Liverpool poorhouse during World War I to a Lake Michigan lighthouse in 1971 to present-day Chicago. Through stories of inappropriately old boyfriends, questionable doctors, and numerous boats, Claire discovers what she shares with the complicated, resilient women who came before her.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chicago, England, Lake Michigan, Liverpool, Lusitania
Period: 1915, 1971, 1970s, World War I
336 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co.