A stolen work of art and a murder connect two women across time in a thrilling and emotional novel about sisters, secrets, and healing the wounds of the past by the author of The Restoration Garden.

To rebuild her life, grieving widow Maya Bishop moves to a cottage she inherited in the Pacific Northwest, next door to a charming new neighbor, Nick. She is looking to regain some peace. But one day Maya finds a painting with a bloodstained frame hidden in a linen chest. On the back of the canvas is a confession—I killed her. I’m sorry. Before she knows it, Maya is drawn into a decades-old mystery.

In 1943, Ava Holland applies for a job at Covington Estate in North Carolina, home to an eccentric railroad baron and a testament to the greed of the richest echelons of society. Except Ava’s position as a domestic is a guise. She’s there to find out who killed her sister, Isabelle—a passionate art lover, a dedicated curator for the Met, and as the fiancée of the Covington heir, a woman marrying into a house of secrets.

Separated by time, the journeys of two women—one searching for healing and a second chance at love, the other for justice—are about to converge.

© 2026 by Sara O’Shaughnessy. ℗ 2026 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.