Willa Jackson returned to Walls of Water, North Carolina to try and live the life her father wanted her live. Willa's father passed on, leaving his aging and demented mother in Willa's care. She owns a sporting goods store in town and has settled into a quiet life visiting her grandmother and trying to make amends for the heartache she caused.
Willa's family was once one of the most socially prominent in Walls of Water. The Jackson family lost their money and their home, the Blue Ridge Madam. Willa is fascinated by the house has stayed away from it, until Paxton Osgood starts restoring it. Willa journeys up there periodically to observe the process. She is invited to the party to show off the restoration but isn't planning to attend until Paxton's brother returns to town. Colin Paxton sees her there and starts visiting Willa.
The restoration of the home will bring to light a mystery. Tucker Devlin was a silver-tongued con man who could charm any woman. When his body is discovered buried in front of the mansion with the frying pan used to kill him, Willa will be drawn into trying to discover what happened.
Willa and Paxton will become friends in a most unexpected way. Colin and Willa will explore a relationship that neither could have imagined when they were in high school.
Once again, Ms. Allen has written an off-beat story that will intrigue and delight the reader. There is always a romantic element to her books but this one contains a mystery as well with some harsh realities. This is a wonderful story populated with some unusual characters.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl
Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale:
Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are
thicker than the fog from the townโs famous waterfalls, and
the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to
be.
Itโs the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old
Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of
means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue
Ridge Madamโbuilt by Willaโs great-great-grandfather during
Walls of Waterโs heyday, and once the townโs grandest
homeโhas stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune
and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a
life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task
in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked
boundaries of the haves and have-nots.
But Willa has
lately learned that an old classmateโsocialite do-gooder
Paxton Osgoodโof the very prominent Osgood family, has
restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with
plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled
past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful
rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton,
found buried beneath the propertyโs lone peach tree, and
certain to drag up dire consequences along with it.
For the bonesโthose of charismatic traveling salesman
Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water
seventy-five years agoโare not all that lay hidden out of
sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling
remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a
spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the
town.
Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship,
united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must
confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that
once bound their familiesโand uncover truths of the
long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to
touch the hearts and souls of the living.
Resonant
with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship,
love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait
of the unshakable bonds thatโin good times and bad, from one
generation to the nextโendure forever.
© 2003-2026