By: Eliza Nellums
ISBN: 9781666523768
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Publication Date: 12/07/2021
Format: Audiobook
Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
Crooked Lane Books
My Rating: 4 Stars (ARC)
Magda Trudell is the present-day caretaker of Whimbrel Estate, the Key West home of the famous poet Isobel Reyes. Isobel's suicide at the residence in 1918 has nearly overshadowed her creative legacy, but Magda, a botanist and avid historian, is determined to protect it. Over the past decade, Magda has lovingly restored the house to the exact condition Isobel would have known. And even though a fierce October hurricane is headed straight for the Keys, she isn't about to abandon her life's work to evacuate.
As the mighty storm makes landfall, the dangers mount. First, a fire and flood threaten to destroy the house. Then the storm claims most of Magda's supplies. When part of the house collapses, she unearths an old steamer trunk in the rubble that contains a woman's remains. Is there more to Isobel's story than Magda knows?
The unexpected appearance of a teenage girl and her father seeking shelter from the storm poses unnerving new questions: Are they really who they seem? And could they have a connection to the house's shadowy past? As the storm rages, Magda desperately tries to solve the real mystery of Isobel's death—and keep the living in one piece.
A special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC audiobook.
Praise
“Readers will be immersed . . . Nellums is a good storyteller.”—Publishers Weekly
“A complex, unusual mystery combines obsession, determination, and danger swirling in the midst of a life-threatening storm.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Atmospheric and gripping. Eliza Nellums combines old mysteries with new dangers to create an evocative page-turner that will have you racing breathlessly to the end."
—Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Original, powerful, and haunting, with language as lush as a tropical forest and a story that won’t let go. With this electrifying study of devotion and survival, Nellums takes you straight into the eye of the storm. Better hold on tight.”
—Tessa Wegert, author of Death in the Family and The Dead Season
About the Author
Photo credit: Lauren Ludi
Raised in the Detroit suburbs, Eliza Nellums now lives with her cat outside Washington DC. Her first novel All That's Bright and Gone was named as an Amazon Editor’s Pick for December, and was praised in the Washington Post and RealSimple Magazine. She is a member of the Metro Wriders, a weekly critique group that meets in Dupont Circle. An amateur botanist and avid gardener, she divides her time between plants, books, and cats. WEBSITE
