The Stolen Marriage - Hardcover

Chamberlain, Diane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1509808531 ISBN 13: 9781509808533

Publisher: Macmillan, 2017

Synopsis

The Stolen Marriage is a compelling novel from Diane Chamberlain, the bestselling author of The Silent Sister, Pretending to Dance and The Midwife’s Confession.

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed for the death. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift in a hostile town, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her – a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, taking the lives of some of its children, including a boy well known to the Kraft family, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital in less than three days. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more baffling and alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?

About this title

Review:

A gripping and engrossing tale (Sunday Mirror)

Interracial relationships, Tess’s unbearable situation and the secrets Henry keeps all make for a tense, enthralling read. Diane Chamberlain’s gift for storytelling never fails (My Weekly)

Twisty and smart (Heat on Pretending to Dance)

A gripping story of a girl's relationship with her father (Women & Home on Pretending to Dance)

[An] engrossing mystery (Hello! on The Silent Sister)

Book Description:

A young woman must unravel her husband's secrets and win over a hostile community in 1940s North Carolina, in this gripping mystery.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1509808531
• ISBN 13: 9781509808533
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384