"Crawdads meets the Crawleys...Threaded through with a meticulously
researched, well-crafted mystery, this is historical fiction at its
best." --Fiona Davis, nationally bestselling author of The Lions of
Fifth Avenue
From the bestselling author of A Tangled Mercy comes an enthralling
novel of secrets, a tumultuous war of ideas, and murder as classes
collide in the shadow of Biltmore House.
Biltmore House, a palatial mansion being built by the Vanderbilts,
American "royalty," is in its final stages of construction in North
Carolina. The country's grandest example of privilege, it symbolizes the
aspirations of its owner and the dreams of a girl, just as driven, who
lives in its shadow.
Kerry MacGregor's future is derailed when, after two years in college in
New York City, family obligations call her home to the beautiful
Appalachians. She is determined to distance herself from the opulence
she sees rising in the Blue Ridge Mountains, however close its reach.
Her family's land is among the last pieces required to complete the
Biltmore Estate. But something more powerful than an ambitious
Vanderbilt heir could change Kerry's fate as, one by one, more outsiders
descend on the changing landscape--a fugitive from Sicily, a reporter
chasing a groundbreaking story, a debutante tainted by scandal, and a
conservationist prepared to put anyone at risk to stoke the resentment
of the locals.
As Kerry finds herself caught in a war between wealth and poverty,
innocence and corruption, she must navigate not only her own pride and
desperation to survive but also the temptations of fortune and the men
who control it.
