In TIDEWATER, a brief but torrid relationship between Sara Bonniface and Ben McElwyn results in a child who develops into an all too precocious twelve-year-old determined to track down her biological father -- and who isn't afraid to break every dish in the kitchen in her pursuit of the truth. A murder mystery complicates an already fraught situation.
In A CHARMED PLACE, Maddie Regan is stunned to find that Dan Hawke, her college sweetheart and now a war correspondent, has moved into the lighthouse next to her family's summer home on Cape Cod. Dan knows all too well that Maddie's family, and Maddie herself, are unwilling to let him back into their lives, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Dark secrets, including an unsolved murder, are challenges he's more than willing to face -- even though the village sometimes feels to him like a war zone.
Book One: TESS. From the wild decadence of late nineteenth-century Newport comes the tale of Tess Moran, a beautiful Irish housemaid in one of the grand summer "cottages," who makes a dark bargain with a man of commanding wealth—and falls in love in the bargain.
Book Two: AMANDA.
Marrying American money to an English title is a tradition of its own; but Amanda Fain, a feisty heiress with money to burn, has a fondness for Bolsheviks and bootleg liquor that makes her an unlikely match for the reluctant, ironic, and impoverished English aristocrat Geoffrey Seton, who has been ordered to America to find someone who can pay the bills for the family estate back home. Set in the Gatsby era of the Roaring Twenties, AMANDA reflects the brash, reckless nature of a young country on the move.
Book Three: LAURA.
While the Great Depression grinds relentlessly on, Laura Andersson, a midwestern farm girl with an improbable love of the sea, embarks on a bold adventure that promises riches but delivers passion, one that threatens all she holds dear.
Book Four: THE HEIRS.
THE HEIRS is the dramatic conclusion to the four-book series BY THE SEA. Economic hard times are
a distant memory in high-flying, recent-day Newport, home of the oldest and most prestigious trophy
in the world, the Holy Grail of sport--the America's Cup. Here, the descendants of Tess, Amanda and Laura
play out their destinies, their paths crossing in unforeseen ways: Mavis Moran, Neil Powers, his daughter
Quinta, and America's Cup skipper Alan Seton all find themselves caught in a web of mystery, sabotage,
and conflicting desires.