Diane Chamberlain
"Before the Storm" From Mira Books
Chamberlain lays out her latest piece of romantic suspense in a shattered chronology that’s as graceful as it is perfectly paced. Most of the adults in the tightly knit coastal community of Topsail Island, N.C., accept the widowed Laurel Lockwood’s 15-year-old mentally disabled son, Andy. But when Andy saves many of the town’s youth during a tragic fire, he becomes a local hero who garners national attention. Laurel, caught up with making sure Andy is okay, thinks daughter Maggie, a high school senior, can handle herself. What Maggie hides from everyone are her slipping grades, a taboo affair and a terrible secret, and when the fire’s origins are investigated and Andy is a person of interest, events turn progressively darker for the family. Long, juicy flashbacks cover the mysteries of Laurel’s husband’s death, of Andy’s condition and of Laurel’s preoccupation with him. Chamberlain offers no easy solutions, but her engrossing prose leads the way to redemption. (June)
"Before the Storm" Book Trailer Video
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"The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes" From Mira Books
Twenty-eight years ago, a North Carolina governor's young, pregnant wife was kidnapped. Now, her remains have been found and a man charged with her murder. Only one person-CeeCee Wilkes-can refute the charges against him. But CeeCee disappeared years ago. . .
Set in 1970's Chapel Hill, current day Raleigh and Charlottesville, VA, this is the story of a woman who has spent her adult life trying to make up for a terrible mistake she made as a teenager. Now, as she watches another person about to pay for a crime she knows he didn't commit, she must make decision that could destroy both her family and herself.
Available at Amazon.com.
THE OUTER BANKS TRILOGY
All three books are set in Kiss River, a fictional spit of land somewhere between Duck and Corolla:
"Keeper of the Light"
The death of a local hero, Annie O'Neill, has a devastating impact on the lives of the three people who had come to idealize her. To her husband, Alec, she was a loving wife; to Paul, perfection: and to Olivia, a rival to be emulated. Their worship of her threatens to destroy them all. Only one person has the power to free them from their obsessions. Only one person, the keeper of the light, knows the truth about their beloved Annie.
"Has all the drama and immediacy of a runaway train." –Chicago Tribune
Available at amazon.com
"Kiss River"
Gina Higgins has come to Kiss River as a stranger with a secret. But secrets are a fact of life for some of the residents of the close-knit community. Gina is about to learn that those secrets are tied to her own in ways she never could have imagined. Kiss River's historic lighthouse has all but fallen into the sea, taking with it the huge Fresnel lens that once served as its beacon. Gina is desperate to find a way to raise the lens from the sea. The glass holds the key to her future, her fortune and her only chance to save the one person who matters to her: a child who waits for her halfway around the world.
Available at Amazon.com
"Her Mother’s Shadow"
When Lacey O'Neill was a teenager, an emotionally overwrought husband stepped into a battered women's shelter and, in front of Lacey, shot her mother, a volunteer there. That deranged man killed one woman, but he destroyed two families — Lacey's and his own.
Now Lacey is a stained glass artist in her late twenties, living in the old Kiss River light keeper's house while it is being restored as a museum — and her mother's killer is up for parole. While her family deals with this crisis, Lacey learns that her best friend was killed in a car accident, leaving instructions for Lacey to raise her 11-year-old daughter.
As the secrets behind her mother's death unravel, Lacey discovers that nothing is as it seems. . .
"Complex credible characterization raises (Chamberlain's) saga so far above soap opera that even readers who are not already fans will sympathize with the flawed but caring people she compassionately evokes." - Publisher's Weekly
Available at Amazon.com
The first chapters of the following books, as well as information about my research and questions for reading groups, can be found on my website, www.dianechamberlain.com.
About the Author:
Diane Chamberlain
I'm delighted to finally be living in beautiful North Carolina! Although I spent most of my life in Virginia, California and New Jersey, I was pulled to North Carolina settings for many of my sixteen novels. I finally made the move to Raleigh and am so glad I did!
I have a masters degree in clinical social work and worked as a hospital social worker and psychotherapist in private practice, before making the decision to write full time. My first novel was published in 1989, and I've been at it ever since. I'm currently working on a novel set on Topsail Island and I hope it will be published in 2007.