The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard

A woman learns her late grandmother was once a Hollywood starlet in the intriguing latest from Callahan (Searching for Grace Kelly). Kit O’Neill, a junior news program producer in Manhattan, is going through her recently deceased grandmother Nancy’s belongings when she comes across a playbill for a 1959 production staged on Martha’s Vineyard starring Mercy Welles. While searching on the internet for the actor, Kit is surprised to discover Mercy and Nancy were the same person. Eager to find out why her grandmother abandoned her acting career, Kit travels to Los Angeles and later to Martha’s Vineyard to search for answers. In a parallel narrative set in 1959, Mercy rents a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard to recover from a bad breakup from her Hollywood director boyfriend. While on the island, she agrees to appear in a local production of The Rose of Aquinnah and embarks on a romance with Ren Sewards, a taciturn oysterman. As Ren and Mercy get closer, she seeks answers about his broken relationship with his family and encounters danger when she gets too close to the truth. Callahan skillfully blends notes of mystery and romance in this layered story of family secrets. Readers will have a hard time putting it down. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (May)