Annapolis does not look like a dangerouse place. A charming, historic town with winding cobblestone streets, colonial houses, eighteenth-century gardens, quaint shops, and a bustling harbor where 50,000 sailboats bob at their morrings, it seems to offer the beauty and peace that grief-stricken Elise Stannard and her teenaged daughter Sarah need following the death of Sarah's father. Or so Sarah's grandparents think as they welcome the two into the great house on the Severn River.
For pretty, quiet, and over-protected Sarah, it appears adjustment will come slowly. But private school, new friends, and the gentle pace of the old seaport work their magic. For Elise, hoever, there is no escape from reality. Lonely and bereft, her whole world now centers on Sarah-whose newfound independence is a bitter pill.
But Sarah and Elise aren't the only newcomers to Annapolis. Joseph Sherk, recently arrived from the high country of Virginia, lives in a very different part of town. He, too, is caught in a web of pain and grief. But he hasn't come to enjoy the tranquility of Annapolis; he wants to find his teenaged daughter Margaret. It would seem that the worlds of the Stannards and Joseph Sherk would never collide.
Then, suddenly, Sarah vanishes and the picture-postcard world of Annapolis is turned upside down. The police fail to turn up a single clue. Detective Howard Warner, who wants no part of this case, is unable to extricate himself from it. But Howard Warner is the only hope of a family verging on disintegration and only Howard Warner will be there when the macabre drama is finally played out.
A chilling tale of abduction and murder, of a family's terror and a young woman's spirit. In A Place Dark and Secret takes its rightful place alongside the best suspense novels of our time.
For pretty, quiet, and over-protected Sarah, it appears adjustment will come slowly. But private school, new friends, and the gentle pace of the old seaport work their magic. For Elise, hoever, there is no escape from reality. Lonely and bereft, her whole world now centers on Sarah-whose newfound independence is a bitter pill.
But Sarah and Elise aren't the only newcomers to Annapolis. Joseph Sherk, recently arrived from the high country of Virginia, lives in a very different part of town. He, too, is caught in a web of pain and grief. But he hasn't come to enjoy the tranquility of Annapolis; he wants to find his teenaged daughter Margaret. It would seem that the worlds of the Stannards and Joseph Sherk would never collide.
Then, suddenly, Sarah vanishes and the picture-postcard world of Annapolis is turned upside down. The police fail to turn up a single clue. Detective Howard Warner, who wants no part of this case, is unable to extricate himself from it. But Howard Warner is the only hope of a family verging on disintegration and only Howard Warner will be there when the macabre drama is finally played out.
A chilling tale of abduction and murder, of a family's terror and a young woman's spirit. In A Place Dark and Secret takes its rightful place alongside the best suspense novels of our time.
