Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this
epic love story is as rich, spellbinding, and majestic as
the falls themselves.
1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara
Falls. Seventeen-year- old Bess Heath has led a sheltered
existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the
Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding
school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque
family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives,
nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job
at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in
sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and
Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her
former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely
eating--and harboring a secret.
The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a
trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to
him--against her family's strong objections. He is not from
their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the
river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the
whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a
local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies
that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves.
As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced
to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is
best for her family and her future.
Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a
time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and
great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as
lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an
intoxicating debut novel.