Publication Date: May 21, 2024
A tantalizing novel of two women bound by blood but divided by a long-buried secret, and the island that holds the key to the fateful summer that changed everything forever.
In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director…
Until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off.
Almost sixty years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior television producer in Manhattan, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles.
Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.
Mercy retreats to the island nursing a broken heart, only to be drawn to the roguish Ren Sewards, who is not just the simple oysterman he appears to be but a scion of one of the island’s wealthy founding families. With her attraction to Ren quickly growing, Mercy soon finds herself entangled in the intrigues of the tightly knit community and the secrets of the Sewards.
Alternating between Mercy and Kit’s timelines, including excerpts from letters Mercy wrote the summer she disappeared, The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard unfurls into a heart-stopping story of love, betrayal, and even murder.
When packing up the contents of her deceased grandmother’s attic, Kit O’Neill discovers clues to a mystery more than half a century old.
Author Michael Callahan uses the past to influence the future in The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard. The end result is an epic tale of love and loss.
Kit’s discovery of her grandmother’s secret life prompts her to travel to Martha’s Vineyard to learn more about that fateful summer in 1959 and actress Mercy Welles.
The story, which includes excerpts from letters, alternates between past and present. As Kit unravels the mystery, she discovers her grandmother’s summer romance, along with a dangerous secret.
The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard tells a beautiful story about two women connected by blood and a mystery leading to happiness.
Michael Callahan is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Searching for Grace Kelly and The Night She Won Miss America, as well as a coffee-table history of the famed Musso & Frank Grill restaurant in Hollywood. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, his work has been published in Esquire, Town & Country, and the New York Times, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
