Maine. Antiques. August.
Maggie Summer, owner of the antique print business Shadows, is thrilled when her old college roommate, Amy Douglas, invites -- almost begs -- her to come to the coast of Maine to see her new house. August is the perfect time for antiquing and, as it turns out, for murder.
Amy and Drew Douglas have just bought a creaky but gorgeous eighteenth-century house in the little town of Madoc. Built in 1774, the house sits high on a hill overlooking the river. The house is great, but not the neighbors, who seem to think that the property should never have been put up for sale. Until now, it's always belonged to one formidable Maine family. Amy and Drew are New Yorkers. What are they doing here, where they don't belong?
Hostile neighbors are just the start of their problems. Who is behind a series of strange fires and bizarre accidents? Where is the baby that Amy hears crying in the night, and why do she and Drew want so obsessively to have a child of their own? And what is the relationship between Drew and an attractive teenager named Crystal?
As Maggie searches for answers, she runs into fellow antiques dealer Will Brewer, a man with whom she once hoped for a romantic future. But can she trust him now? He, too, is part of the family that always owned Amy and Drew's house. Is his loyalty to Maggie or to his family?
When a body turns up in the backyard, Maggie's Maine holiday suddenly turns into a hunt for a killer. Who will tell Maggie the truth? Is there a clue in her antique prints? Everything comes back to the house on the hill. What tragedies has it seen? What sorrows are soon to come? If only walls could talk, then Maggie would know whom to fear.
Inspired to use her own Colonial house as a provocative fictional setting, author Lea Wait combines history and mystery in this richly nuanced and immensely entertaining new Shadows mystery.
