Is there anything better than a great book on a Rhode Island summer day? I’ve assembled nine books to keep you busy turning pages all season long.
May 6 brought Providence writer Diane Josefowicz’s locked room mystery, The Great Houses of Pill Hill. When New England decorator Hannah “Cookie” Cooke is hired to redo a historic house and the owner turns up dead, the detective on the case is sure the answer lies in one of Cookie’s miniature reproduction crime scenes. A contemporary take on classic noir, this is a deliciously chilling tale.
New York Times bestseller Phyllis Karas released Curse of the Blumenthals on May 19. After a car accident in 1935 kills six members of his bootlegging family, Ronnie Blumenthal is born six months later. A golden child until his own arrest in 1954 for murder, Ronnie pleads guilty and dies in a pauper’s grave. But what really happened over three generations of secrets, crimes, and lies?
Annabel Monaghan is back with Dolly All the Time. Dolly Brick returns to coastal Rhode Island every summer with her teenage son to help her dad run the family fish market. When she gets talked into faking a romance with Steward Whitfield, scion of the wealthiest family in town, feelings she never knew she was capable of are aroused. Ocean House Author Series: June 24
What if Marilyn Monroe hadn’t died? May 26 saw the publication of Lois Cahall’s intriguing reimagining, Maybe Marilyn. Monroe’s housekeeper and psychiatrist were supposedly the only two people to ever see her dead. Five hours elapsed before authorities were contacted. What if they helped her get away, recreate herself, and live the taste of freedom she had never been granted?
June 9 brings epic adventure on the high seas. The Stargazer of Nantucket by Barrington resident Julie Gerstenblatt, tells the tale of Winifred Starbuck, a girl desperate to leave Nantucket in 1851 to join her parents in bustling San Francisco and exciting China beyond. When she defies her parents’ orders and stows away on their merchant ship, she is plunged into turbulent waters and plenty of thrills.
Set to publish on June 23, New York Times bestseller Beatriz Williams’s newest novel, When You Loved Me, follows a young widow who returns to her late father’s New England estate and is drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life. The distant and not-so-distant past collide in this tale of lost treasures and loves that might be resurrected. Ocean House Author Series: July 8
New York Times bestseller Luanne Rice’s Until Midnight publishes June 30, and she will join me at the OHAS the following night! When a perfect wedding is disrupted by a pesky dead body – possibly that of a woman who shares a child with the groom – Rice is off to the races with another crime puzzler set in Watch Hill and surrounding towns. Ocean House Author Series: July 1.
National bestseller Jacqueline Friedland, brings us Breathing Under Water on August 4. The story of two women, Berry and McKenna, brought together in unexpected ways, is a deeply moving exploration of motherhood, sacrifice, and the extraordinary connections that emerge when we’re brave enough to let others see our struggles.
August 18 sees Rae Cline’s debut novel, Precious Ugly. Clementine is a girl in trouble. Homeless and only 13, she is desperate to escape her abusive and charismatic father while she protects her mother. Set in the Reagan 1980s in rural West Virginia, it is both a tale rooted in its era and a timeless examination of poverty, addiction, and the everyday marvels of tenacity and resourcefulness.
Deborah Goodrich Royce is an accomplished author, former actress, preservationist, and philanthropist. Her newest psychological thriller, Best Boy, was an instant Indie Press bestseller! Her national bestseller, Reef Road, was a Kirkus Reviews best book of 2023 and an Indie Next pick. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist, and Finding Mrs. Ford was praised by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America. Royce co-created the Deer Mountain Writers’ Retreat, contributes this column quarterly, and hosts the Ocean House Author Series. Learn more at DeborahGoodrichRoyce.com and OceanHouseRI.com
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