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To exorcise the family specter, Vivian must go back to the past…

In 1892 San Francisco, Nob Hill’s finest are gathered to mourn the death of society leader Penelope Alderdice. Then the uninvited Bertha Ross upsets the solemn occasion by insisting she knew “Grace” in the small coastal town of Waxwood in the 1850s, hinting at a love affair, exile, and unexplained illness. The trouble Penelope’s nineteen-year-old granddaughter Vivian never heard of Grace or Waxwood. Who was her grandmother beyond a shipping tycoon’s angelic wife and one of Nob Hill’s celebrated socialites? And why are people in Waxwood reluctant to tell Vivian? 

Now revised and updated!

What reviewers are saying:

May’s historical fiction picks apart the delicate facade of American gentility in upper-class, well-heeled families on the wild West Coast at the end of the nineteenth century. – Lisa Lickel, author and blogger, Living our Faith Out Loud

Gently told, and forms a good basis for the series to build upon. – Discovering Diamonds: Historical Fiction Reviews

Part gothic fiction, part psychological drama, “The Specter” was a deeply moving & introspective book about one of San Francisco’s powerful families set in 1892 – Amazon Vine Voice reader

An intriguing and beguiling story. – Amazon reader

A fantastic story that will definitely intrigue the reader and pull you into to the last page. – Amazon reader

Buy The Specter now for only 99¢!

Interested in check out the entire series? You can do that here!

Photo Credit: The Inmates of my House, Therese Schwartze, 1915, oil on canvas, Museum de Lakenhal, the Netherlands: Jan Arkesteijn/Wikimedia Commons/PD Old 100

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