Lea Wait Books In Order

Shadows at the Fair

Local antiques dealer, dead in a one car accident on his way home from an antiques exposition in Columbus, Ohio Two Scranton, Pennsylvania, antiques dealers dead of smoke inhalation Massachusetts antiques dealer dead of substance abuse at an auction in Sharon, Connecticut Antiques dealer dies in his booth at the Westchester New York Antiques Show Ignorance is truly bliss for recently widowed Maggie Summer, owner of Shadows Antiques, when she arrives at the prestigious Rensselaer County Spring Antiques Fair. Sadly, she won’t remain ignorant of the suspiciously high mortality rate among her fellow antiques dealers for long. Rumors are everywhere. The most recent victim, John Smithson, died of poison at a show just last week, and many of the same dealers are here at Rensselaer. They make the identical circuit year after year, so they know each other well. Or do they? Murder is still far from Maggie’s mind as she arranges her Shadows booth: some Currier & Ives prints here, Winslow Homer wood engravings on the hack wall, other prints arranged on tables and easels by category. With eleven years’ experience, she knows her stock. So far the worst thing that has happened was putting the wrong price tag on a Homer engraving and having to sell it for $170 instead of $1,700. Maggie doesn’t intend for that to happen again, and she doesn’t intend to worry about murder. This show’s security is tight. But she can’t help observing her colleagues with fresh eyes. Some, Eke Gussie White in the booth next door, are dear friends, and Gussie’s assistant, her twenty year old nephew, Ben, who has Down’s syndrome, is a delightful new acquaintance. Others, however, even peopleshe’s known for years, suddenly seem suspect. The opening night wine has hardly stopped flowing when death claims another victim. Maggie will still sell a few antique prints, but she’ll spend most of her time looking for a killer and trying to save a vulnerable young friend. Will Maggie herself become a potential victim? The answer may be in one of Maggie’s prints, but she has hundreds in her booth. Where should she begin? With its riveting behind the scenes glimpse of antiques shows and its revealing data on antique print values, ‘Shadows at the Fair‘ introduces a captivating new series that unveils the powerful mysteries of antique prints even as it entertains.

Shadows on the Coast of Maine

Maine. Antiques. August. Maggie Summer, owner of the antique print business Shadows, is thrilled when her old college roommate, Amy Douglas, invites almost begs her to come to the coast of Maine to see her new house. August is the perfect time for antiquing and, as it turns out, for murder. Amy and Drew Douglas have just bought a creaky but gorgeous eighteenth century house in the little town of Madoc. Built in 1774, the house sits high on a hill overlooking the river. The house is great, but not the neighbors, who seem to think that the property should never have been put up for sale. Until now, it’s always belonged to one formidable Maine family. Amy and Drew are New Yorkers. What are they doing here, where they don’t belong? Hostile neighbors are just the start of their problems. Who is behind a series of strange fires and bizarre accidents? Where is the baby that Amy hears crying in the night, and why do she and Drew want so obsessively to have a child of their own? And what is the relationship between Drew and an attractive teenager named Crystal? As Maggie searches for answers, she runs into fellow antiques dealer Will Brewer, a man with whom she once hoped for a romantic future. But can she trust him now? He, too, is part of the family that always owned Amy and Drew’s house. Is his loyalty to Maggie or to his family? When a body turns up in the backyard, Maggie’s Maine holiday suddenly turns into a hunt for a killer. Who will tell Maggie the truth? Is there a clue in her antique prints? Everything comes back to the house on the hill. What tragedies has it seen? What sorrows are soon to come? If only walls could talk, then Maggie would know whom to fear. Inspired to use her own Colonial house as a provocative fictional setting, author Lea Wait combines history and mystery in this richly nuanced and immensely entertaining new Shadows mystery.

Shadows on the Ivy

Antique print dealer Maggie Summer is teaching a college course on ‘Myths in American Culture,’ using prints by Currier & Ives and other nineteenth century artists to illustrate her points. As a faculty advisor, she’s also dealing with the problems of students who are single parents: problems that turn dangerous when a young mother is poisoned, and events twist Maggie’s own thoughts about motherhood. She suspects a sinister connection between the past and the present, and her prints could provide valuable clues. But some secrets are too hard to see even for an expert like Maggie and some crimes hit too close to home…

Shadows at the Spring Show

She’s an antique print dealer, a college professor, and now…
a parent? Maggie Summer is considering adopting a child from the New Jersey agency Our World, Our Children, and she has happily agreed to stage a benefit antiques show on their behalf. With her dealer friends, her college, and her lover, Will Brewer, all donating their time and support, everything is falling into place. But someone is harboring a vicious grudge against Our World, Our Children. The adoptive mother of thirteen children is the first victim, and then Maggie begins receiving threats. With the crowded benefit set to open and hundreds of innocent lives at stake, Maggie races to preserve the future with a clue hidden in her prints from the past…
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Shadows of a Down East Summer

In the summer of 1890, two young women posed for artist Winslow Homer on the coast of Maine. What happened that summer, the secrets the women kept, and the lies they told, changed their families forever. Now, more than a hundred years later, one of their descendants has been murdered, leaving to antique print dealer Maggie Summer the family papers that may finally reveal the truth. Maggie’s vision of a relaxing vacation in Maine antiquing with beau Will Brewer and visiting his Aunt Nettie turns into a murder investigation. Maggie must discover which of the family myths are based on reality, before someone she cares about becomes the next victim. With the centennial of Homer’s death in 2010, there is renewed interest in his work and in the renovation of his studio in Prouts Neck, Maine, where some of the novel’s action takes place.

Seaward Born

Thirteen year old Michael knows he is lucky. Few slaves in 1805 Charleston are where they want to be. But Michael works on the docks and ships in Charleston Harbor, close to the seas he longs to sail.

Life seems good. But then his protective mistress dies and Michael’s world changes. His friend Jim encourages him to ‘steal himself’; to run. Michael is torn.

Mama always taught him, ‘to get along, you go along.’ But Papa wanted him to be free. ‘You see a possibility, you take it…
.A fish you pull in as a free man tastes ten times sweeter than a fish you catch for a master.’ Now Mama and Papa are both dead, and Michael must decide alone.

Does he dare risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? If he and Jim are caught, he will have lost everything. But if he stays is staying safe worth staying a slave?

How Michael makes his decision to flee seaward to freedom is the heart of this moving and dramatic story set in an America where slavery is a way of life in the South, and the journey to freedom one of immense courage and mortal danger.

Stopping to Home

‘Some people are born into the right family. A family that will stay with you no matter what. Some people, like Seth and me, just have each other. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for us. It just means no one’s going to set life down in front of us, ready made.’ Eleven year old Abigail Chambers and her younger brother, Seth, have lost their mother to smallpox and their father to the sea. It is 1806, in the Maine seaport of Wiscasset, and their future is uncertain. With no family to watch out for them, Abbie and Seth must make a new life, find a new home. Working for the young widow of a sea captain may be a temporary answer but only if Seth keeps out of trouble and Widow Chase finds a way to support herself. As the months pass, Abbie and Seth find more questions than answers, until Abbie has an idea that may be the solution for all of them. But first Widow Chase must listen and Seth must leave the past behind.

Wintering Well

‘What happened this afternoon is too terrible to write…
Please, God, let Will live. And please, God, forgive me.’ Cassie’s journal opens her dramatic story and that of her older brother Will, as they are both forced to reexamine their lives after a farm accident leaves Will without a leg and without hope. After a winter of healing, Will knows his future must be away from the farm that he loves. He and Cassie go to stay with their older sister and her husband in the nearby town of Wiscasset. There, with the excitement of Maine’s new statehood as a backdrop, Will finds that being disabled can be a social handicap as well as physical one. But with hard work he can win respect and find exciting possibilities for his future. Living in town opens Cassie’s eyes too. She sees Will considering career options not open to her, and she wonders if she can be fulfilled by keeping a house and a family. Are there other possibilities for a young woman in 1820? As Cassie watches Will make his life decisions, she struggles to find her own place in the world. From the author of Stopping to Home and Seaward Born comes this remarkable story of hardship, determination, and the joy of finding the right path in life.

Finest Kind

WHAT CAN YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE TWELVE YEARS OLD AND YOUR WORLD IS FALLING APART? It’s 1838. Jake’s father has lost his job and his savings. Hearing of work in Maine, the family leaves their large home in Boston and heads north, taking with them a few furnishings and a deep family secret. In Maine they find only a dirty, isolated farmhouse, and a job for Father that takes him away from home. ‘I’ll have to depend on you,’ Jake’s mother tells him. But how can Jake find food? How can he prepare for the dangerous cold of a Maine winter? How can he protect his mother and his family’s secret? Slowly, Jake learns the ways to survive, catching game and storing food for the long winter months. Nabby McCord, whose family also has a secret, helps him. So does Granny McPherson, who may be a witch. But when it comes to earning the money they need, Jake knows he’s on his own. He shows his determination as the winter approaches, but does he have what it takes to bring his family together to face the future and their past? Finest Kind is the powerful story of a boy who is forced to become a man and to learn the truth about courage, friendship, and secrets.

Writing Children’s Books (With: Lesley Bolton)

Millions of people yearn to create their own boy wizard or talking frog to entertain children everywhere. But before they prepare their acceptance speech for a children’s writers award, they need to know where to start their literary career! From preparing a dynamite proposals to mastering the craft of storytelling, ‘The Only Writing Series You’ll Ever Need: Children’s Books’ is perfect for the writer filled to the brim with ideas, but no clue what to do with them!