New England Fiction

Eleanor Morse's Margreete’s Harbor begins with a fire: A fiercely-independent, thrice-widowed woman living on her own in a rambling house near the Maine coast forgets a hot pan on the stovetop, and nearly burns her place down. When Margreete Bright calls her daughter Liddie to confess, Liddie realizes that her mother can no longer live alone. She, her husband Harry, and their children Eva and Bernie move from a settled life in Michigan across the country to Margreete’s isolated home, and begin a new life.

Olivia Ayala has mastered the art of blending the perfect ingredients to create magical confections in her small-town bakery in Addersfield, Rhode Island—a sanctuary for witches since 1697. As a fiercely independent single mom and a powerful witch, Olivia has crafted a life of sweet serenity for herself and her son, navigating the challenges of cerebral palsy with strength and grace. But beneath the surface of her contented life, a whisper of loneliness lingers. Enter Draven James: charming, annoyingly handsome, and mysteriously capable of finding a town hidden from the outside world.

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

In the New England town of Frog's Ledge, the Holiday Light Festival is a Christmas tradition. Killing Santa is not. To bring joy back to the season, organic pet patisserie owner Kristan "Stan" Connor will have to find another Santa before it's too late . . . To the townspeople's delight, the annual lighting of the tree is a spectacular success. Unfortunately, Santa pulled up in his sleigh, DOA. At first Stan is sure it's Seamus, her boyfriend's uncle, inside the red suit. But the victim turns out to be an employee from the town's Christmas tree farm.

In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was time to move to New England.

Not all is as it seems in the small village of Ascension, Massachusetts. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all. The dead are not dying. When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany their friend Rose to Ascension to help take care of her ailing cousin, they immediately notice that their new house, Bethany Hall, is occupied by dozens of ghosts. And something is waiting for them in the attic.

When Manhattan business tycoon, commonly known as the Takeover King, Montgomery Livingstone is pushed off a Widow's Walk and falls to his death, Maeve and Meg are again thrust into a murder investigation as they attempt to help a seemingly innocent young woman accused of the crime. But it turns out there are many secrets to be uncovered, and once again, Maeve, Meg, and their savvy Boston Irish mother must band together to solve the murder. Maeve races against the clock to bring the killer to justice while caring for her patients and pursuing her goal of motherhood.

Enthralled with a lavish wedding, the town gossips flourish until the specter of a long-deceased spirit intervenes. Based loosely on a true crime story from the turn of the nineteenth century in New England, this novel uncovers a simple truth of humanity—from the well-off to the working class, everyone falls victim to the transience of joy and the struggles of human nature.

Cody, Christopher, Carla, and Steven are about to uncover a truth hidden for almost three decades. While they unravel the shocking mystery that will change their lives forever, they must find a way to forgive the past and each other and find their way to love again. While mysteries unravel and feelings blossom, Cody learns that true love deserves a second chance, after all. Escape into the beauty of the Atlantic coastline and fall in love with Cody Moore, her adorable teens, and her crazy house full of loveable pets.

A young Puritan woman gives birth to an illegitimate child in 17th-century New England and must endure public condemnation and the burden of a terrible secret.

Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth; and the defiant Hester Prynne, who, unwilling to name her partner in adultery, is condemned to wear a scarlet "A" on the breast of her gown for the remainder of her life.

Meet the Laments—the affably dysfunctional globetrotting family at the center of George Hagen’s exuberant debut novel. Howard is an engineer who dreams of irrigating the Sahara and lives by the motto “Laments move!” His wife Julia is a fiery spirit who must balance her husband’s oddly peripatetic nature with unexpected aspirations of her own. And Will is the “waif with a paper-thin heart” who is given to Howard and Julia in return for their own child who has been lost in a bizarre maternity ward mishap.

An old mansion in Salem, moss-covered and gabled, broods over the destiny of a distinguished but troubled New England Family, the Pynchons. A haunting, centuries-old curse, a forceful probing of national and personal guilt, a romance between the young heroine and an attractive stranger all intertwine in this classic work by one of America's greatest novelists.

New Hampshire, 1865. Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder. Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief. Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.

Monkeys is the remarkable story of a decade in the life of the Vincents, a colorful Irish Catholic family from the Boston suburbs. On the surface, they seem happy with their vivacious mother Rosie at the helm. But underneath, the Vincents struggle to maintain the appearance of wealth and stability while dealing with the effects of their father’s alcoholism. When a sudden accident strikes, their love for one another is tested like never before.

Seeking a new life, the Oberstrasse family lands on the wild Maine coast in 1753. They find that the American frontier teems with conniving swindlers, hostile French and Indians, killing diseases, and then a powerful movement for independence from Britain. They have come because Christianne has decided that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping.

Late September 1957. Henry and Effie, very young newlyweds from Georgia, arrive in Cape May, New Jersey, for their honeymoon only to find the town is deserted. Feeling shy of each other and isolated, they decide to cut the trip short. But before they leave, they meet a glamorous set of people who sweep them up into their drama. The empty beach town becomes their playground, and as they sneak into abandoned summer homes, go sailing, walk naked under the stars, make love, and drink a great deal of gin, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with irrevocable consequences.

Das kleine Städtchen Coventry in New England hatte schon tausende Schneestürme erlebt... aber noch keinen wie diesen. Menschen gingen in das weiße Gestöber und kamen nie mehr zurück. Jetzt, zwölf Jahre später, zieht ein weiterer Sturm auf und die Bewohner von Coventry erinnern sich an diejenigen, die sie im Schnee verloren haben. Ein Fotograf trauert um seinen kleinen Bruder. Der Tod seiner Frau hat tiefe Narben im Leben eines Gelegenheitsdiebs hinterlassen.

Romance writer Julia Landon knows how to write a happily-ever-after. Creating one for herself is a whole different story. But after a surprising—and surprisingly passionate—kiss under the mistletoe at Harmony Harbor's holiday party last year, Julia thought she might have finally found her very own chance at true love. Until she learns her Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broodingly Handsome has sworn off relationships. Well, if she can't have him in real life, Julia knows just how to get the next best thing....

When a shy high-school student's body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach town - an apparent suicide - 15-year-old Terry Novak doesn't know what to think. Something just doesn't add up, so he decides to do some investigating of his own with the help of his best friend, Abby. It doesn't take long before they learn that asking questions puts them in grave danger, and surviving is going to be a fight.