With the writing chops of Ian McEwan and the storytelling of Lisa Wingate, "a haunting debut" about two intertwined families and the secrets they've kept buried during the steel boom in Bethlehem, PA "A haunting debut." —Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones"Karen Kelly is the real deal." —Mark Sullivan, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet SkyA young woman arrives at her mother-in-law's intimidating but glorious gilded home in Bethlehem, PA, happy that her husband is to assume leadership of the family steel business. But what greets her is not the happy household she expects, run by the beautiful Susannah, but hallways where whispered secrets and allusions to tragedy haunt her and speak to a past she had no idea existed.Told in alternating time frames, 1962 and the 1920's, when the true titans of Bethlehem Steel got...

Think outside of the box—that’s what Annie Dawson must do when she discovers a mysterious birchbark box in the attic of Grey Gables, the home bequeathed to her by her grandmother, Betsy Holden. The old box, exquisitely carved by an American Indian artist, contains a beaded ceremonial regalia collar and an obscure verse: Sister Otter, water dancing, sun splashes over circles you draw. If love took you to desert dry, where would you dance? Annie knows of no American Indian connection to her family in the region around Stony Point, the quaint New England fishing village on Maine’s rugged coastline where the mystery unfolds. But this very personal glimpse into Passamaquoddy life is somehow threaded through Annie’s family history. She is driven to find the connection. The poem poignantly reminds Annie of the loss of Wayne, the love of her life who was swept away by a heart attack nearly two years earlier. She feels that love has taken her to “desert dry.” Will the grief that cries out to her ever be filled again with the dancing waters of love? Meanwhile Annie, her best friend Alice MacFarland and the members of Stony Point’s Hook and Needle Club are preparing handcrafted items for charitable fundraising at the village’s annual Harvest on the Harbor autumn festival. With the mystery of the box and its contents hanging heavy in the air, the crafters decide a First Nations theme would be perfectly appropriate. Is there a simple explanation as to how the beautiful box found its way into the attic at Grey Gables? Or will Annie’s mystery again tear at the seams of Stony Point’s quiet façade? Join Annie, Alice, and the other members of the Hook and Needle Club as they follow the thread of this latest trail wherever it leads. As the mystery reaches its climax, someone will be boxed in. But who?

Annie Dawson is hard to intimidate. She has stood up to thieves, con men and murderers in the three years since she came to live in Stony Point, Maine. But even she has to shudder when an eagle attacks her and her friends. It seems someone is intent on scaring her away from the answer to her latest mystery.While looking for a basket in the attic of Grey Gables, the Victorian home she inherited from her maternal grandmother, Betsy Holden, Annie discovers a Celtic sporran containing several ferrules, the silver fittings of a set of bagpipes. Annie knows her lineage hailed from Scotland, but neither of her grandparents had told her about the sporran or the ferrules.Annie takes her latest mystery to the Hook and Needle Club, the needlework group that has helped her many times in the past. The thread of the mystery leads Annie and several of her friends to the Highland Games, an annual celebration of Scottish heritage. That’s when the going gets tough. The close-knit clans the group finds at the games appear friendly at first blush, but then close ranks when Annie and Ian Butler, the mayor of Stony Point, ask too many questions. What is the mysterious link that puts everyone on edge? The answer is as mournful as the drone of bagpipes. Join Annie and her Hook and Needle Club friends as they take the high road while someone else is taking the low road in this latest mystery from Annie’s attic.

For Annie Dawson, the discovery of an old Bible in the attic of her home is a link to family she really never knew. But now—standing in front of Ron Atwater, a cousin several times removed—Annie wonders if her newfound relationship is about to turn very bad. Family is of utmost importance to Annie. Her life in Stony Point, Maine, ties her indelibly to her beloved grandparents, Charles and Betsy Holden, and her many childhood visits to their home, Grey Gables. Annie inherited Grey Gables after Betsy’s death, and she has spent countless hours repairing the old home while seeking the answers to mysteries long buried in the attic. But the Bible of William Holden—Charles’s uncle and a Superior Court judge—harbors a dark secret that Annie’s cousin now seems intent to keep. “You can choose your friends, but not your family.” Annie is struck with the truth of that old adage as Ron Atwater glowers at her across the room. In fact, it has been her friends, not her long-lost family, who have helped her thus far in solving the mystery of the Bible from the attic. Her best friend, Alice MacFarlane, and the rest of the members of the Hook and Needle Club have gone mystery chasing with Annie many times in the past. But the thread of clues from William Holden’s Bible keep leading back to a horrible crime and call into question the judge’s actions on the bench. What guilt did William apparently carry with him to the grave? Is there a way to reconcile the matter many decades later? Join Annie and her Hook and Needle Club friends as they read between the scriptural lines in this latest mystery. Will the clues lead Annie to a greater understanding of her family? Or will they instead drive a permanent wedge between them all?