St. Martin's Griffin
August 2018
On Sale: August 14, 2018
416 pages ISBN: 1250087287 EAN: 9781250087287 Kindle: B06XKJVT8D Trade Size / e-Book (reprint) Add to Wish List
From perennial bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes a
compelling historical novel.
In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends
her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a
mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a
small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships
of World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a
secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money
from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love.
Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and
loveless marriage with no way out.
The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as
an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain,
especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies
in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects
people are whispering about her as she adjusts to her new
life. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not?
Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who
seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope
but seems to know more than he’s letting on.
When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the
townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess,
who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to
work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young
victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by
the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients,
can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save
her own life?