In the latest installment of Ellery Adams’ USA Today bestselling series, as clouds gather over the Great Smoky Mountains, an absent groom, a stolen historical document, and a book club coming apart at the seams stir up a different sort of storm in this engaging mystery. How far will one book lover go to keep a secret?
As the townsfolk of Miracle Springs, North Carolina, know all too well, water can be healing—or devastating. With a big storm coming, residents are stocking up on essentials. Hoping to beat the storm, Nora is sitting in the Unitarian Church with her fellow wedding guests, all of whom belong to Sheldon’s Blind Date Book Club. As rain hammers the stained-glass windows, the bride, Jess, waits in the back of the church—but where is the groom? When a branch crashes through a stained-glass window, Jess finally tells the guests to go home.
With the help of her friend Sheldon, Nora escorts Jess to the Lodge. It’s now become clear that Jess’s fiancé Ravi is missing. But there’s no searching for him now, as the Miracle River has flooded and they’re stuck on this side of town. By morning, they awaken to widespread devastation and a call from Sheriff McCabe. A body has been pulled out of the river, dressed in a tux.
On top of this tragic turn of events, Jess returns home to find her house has been spared from the raging water, but ransacked, with an extremely valuable folio from an illuminated manuscript now missing. As Miracle Books becomes the community hub for information, shelter, and hope, Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone Society put their heads together to solve the murder and the theft.
But then a second body is pulled from the river . . .
Release date:
October 27, 2026
Publisher:
Kensington Books
Print pages:
288
* BingeBooks earns revenue from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate as well as from other retail partners.
Bookseller Nora Pennington twisted around in her church pew, hoping to catch a glimpse of her employee and friend, Sheldon Vega.
When he’d left work at three, Sheldon had been wearing slacks and a sweater vest. At home, he’d put on a silver suit that matched the color of his hair and pinned a white gerbera daisy to his lapel. He’d sent Nora a selfie of his finished look, along with a text saying, Ready to catwalk down the aisle.
She expected him to appear with the bride on his arm at any moment. The ceremony should have started twenty minutes ago, and the guests were growing more jittery by the second.
One could hardly blame them. The remnants of a category four hurricane were barreling toward their small North Carolina mountain town. For most of the residents of Miracle Springs, this was an evening to stay home, watch weather reports, and eat perishable foods.
As they waited for the bride, the smattering of guests in the church exchanged nervous whispers. Many of them were undoubtedly second-guessing their decision to attend a wedding in the middle of a storm that was just beginning to give them a taste of its power.
The wind rattled the stained-glass windows like it wanted to come inside. The organist responded to the noise by cranking up the volume of “Ode to Joy.”
The spritely melody seemed at odds with the weather. The rain drilled against the roof and poured down the windows in sheets. Thunder rumbled like a train moving through a tunnel.
The lights in the sanctuary flickered. The guests let out soft gasps and darted anxious glances at the windows.
A young woman in a maroon jumpsuit turned to her neighbor and said, “I know we have a bride. But where’s the groom?”
The woman in the jumpsuit was Selena. Her neighbor, a twentysomething blonde wearing a navy dress and rain boots, was Bella. Nora recognized most of the guests because they were all members of Sheldon’s book club.
In answer to Selena’s question about the groom, Bella said, “No one’s seen him.”
“Jess and Ravi booked extra rooms at the Lodge in case we don’t want to drive home after the reception. Are you going to stay over?”
Bella nodded. “I could never afford a room there on my salary, so I’m totally staying. Ashlee said she was planning to stay too, but she isn’t even here yet.” She held up her phone. “I’ve sent her a bunch of messages, but she’s leaving them unread. It’s super weird that she and Ravi are both late.”
“Maybe the traffic lights went out or there’s a tree down,” Selena suggested. Then she leaned toward the dark-haired woman sitting next to her—someone Nora had never seen before—and said, “We’re only staying for the ceremony. As soon as it’s over, I have to get my dog. She’s at my mom’s place, probably freaking out right now. She’s scared of thunder.”
“Me too!” Locking eyes with Selena’s friend, Bella said, “That’s why I want Ravi to show up so this wedding can start. I also want Ashlee to get here so she can drive me to the reception. I can’t drive when the thunder’s too loud. I literally close my eyes with every boom. I’d go right off the side of Mountain Road in a storm like this.”
Selena put a hand on Bella’s arm. “Don’t be scared. We’ll get lots of rain and we might lose power. Some trees will fall. But by tomorrow, everything will be back to normal.”
“For us. If Ravi doesn’t show up soon, Jess will never be the same.”
Bella’s words compelled Nora to pull out her phone. Seeing that her last text to Sheldon had gone unread, she slipped out of her pew and walked to the back of the sanctuary.
Suddenly, the door dividing the sanctuary from the narthex opened and Ashlee scurried through.
“Has it started?” she whispered to Nora. “I spilled coffee all over my dress and had to change. Then, of course, my makeup was all wrong.” Ashlee glanced at the front of the church and smiled when she saw Bella waving at her.
Nora said, “It hasn’t started yet. I was just going to see if everyone was ready.”
“I can’t wait to see Jess in her wedding gown!” Ashlee clasped her hands together and hurried up the aisle.
Exiting the sanctuary, Nora found Sheldon in a little room off the narthex, embracing the bride. It was a hug meant to convey comfort, not celebration. Considering he was supposed to be walking Jess down the aisle to meet her groom any minute now, this was cause for concern.
Nora said, “Hey, you two. Is everything okay?”
The bride’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “Ravi isn’t answering his phone or replying to texts. And he stopped sharing his location. Isaac’s his best man, and he hasn’t heard from him either. I’m really worried.”
Sheldon hugged her harder. “We’ll find him, mi amor.”
Jess Girard and Ravi Singh had met and fallen in love at Sheldon’s Blind Date Book Club. The group of single, divorced, and widowed people who gathered once a month to eat, drink, and talk about books were a close-knit bunch, which was why they were willing to celebrate their friends’ marriage in the middle of a tropical storm.
When the lights flickered again, Sheldon shot a pleading glance at Nora. He wanted her help, but she didn’t know what to do.
“Ravi lives above the candle shop, right?” she asked Jess.
Jess nodded miserably. “We already called his landlady. She knocked on his door, but no one answered. And his Jeep isn’t in the parking lot. Reverend Thomas is in his office, trying to reach the tenant who lives across the hall from Ravi.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, and Sheldon fished in his pocket for a handkerchief. Watching him gently dab Jess’s face, Nora wished there was something she could do to ease the young bride’s fears.
A crash sounded from inside the sanctuary, making Nora and Sheldon jump. Jess let out a small cry and gripped Sheldon’s arm.
The organ music abruptly ceased, and the wind stepped in to fill the silence. It was high and shrill, like the wail of a gothic ghost.
Kirsten, a middle-aged woman in a rose-colored skirt suit, appeared in the doorway. “A branch just came through one of the windows! I’m sorry, Jess, but I think we need to leave.”
As if on cue, the lights snapped off.
Jess squared her shoulders and marched into the sanctuary.
“I’m sorry, everyone, but the wedding’s off!” she called. “I don’t where Ravi is, but I’m going to find him and make sure he’s okay. You should all go home unless you’d rather stay at the Lodge. We have a block of rooms reserved. The hotel has a generator, and there’ll be plenty of food. Do whatever feels right. I just want you to be safe.”
Bella hurried up the aisle and threw her arms around Jess. “Ravi loves you so much!” she cried. “Anyone with eyes can see that. You two will be back here, saying ‘I do,’ as soon as this storm passes.”
Ashlee, who was right behind Bella, nodded in agreement. “I’m coming to the Lodge. I want to be there for you, no matter what.”
A few more guests promised to join Jess at the Lodge, but the majority told her they were heading home.
“My mama’s babysitting the boys, and she’ll be worried about me if I’m out in this weather,” said a middle-aged man named Jamal. “My date has kids too, so we’d better go.”
The woman on Jamal’s arm told Jess that she would pray for Ravi’s safety.
Isaac, the best man, brandished his cell phone. “I tried to pull up the latest radar map, but I don’t have any service. I’ll head up to the Lodge now. Maybe Ravi’s waiting for us there.”
While Isaac grabbed an umbrella from the stand near the door, Sheldon turned to Nora. “I’m going with Jess. I can’t leave her alone at a time like this.”
“Where you go, I go,” Nora said.
She and Sheldon put on their raincoats and waited in the lobby while Jess changed out of her wedding dress. When she emerged wearing jeans and a white sweater embroidered with the word Wifey, Sheldon’s lips trembled.
Jess wagged a finger at him. “None of that. We need to stay calm and focused if we’re going to find Ravi.”
Jess’s Honda CRV wasn’t far from the front entrance, but Nora was drenched by the time she climbed into the back seat. The ends of her whiskey-colored hair dripped onto her blue floral dress. Her shoes—the only pair of heels she owned—were soaked through.
Sheldon used his tie to dry off his rain-speckled glasses and then twisted the tails of his Hercule Poirot mustache. As the car bounced through a minefield of puddles, he stopped tugging at his facial hair and clung to the door handle. Every now and then, he let out a little grunt.
Jess turned on Blue Ridge Public Radio to catch the latest weather news.
A man’s low, solemn voice filled the car. “Wind gusts have reached fifty miles per hour in places. We’re seeing flash floods and widespread power outages throughout the area. These conditions will continue through tonight and tomorrow.”
The reporter reminded his listeners not to drive on flooded roads and to locate a shelter in case of a tornado warning.
“A tornado? We’re not in Kansas, Dorothy.” Sheldon glanced back at Nora. “Has there ever been a tornado in these parts?”
“Not that I know of, but the weather is crazy everywhere now,” she said. “Fires out West. Snow in the Deep South. Intense heat in the North. But the Lodge is a veritable fortress. We’ll be safe there.”
Sheldon nodded, but his eyes said, What about everyone else?
As Jess turned onto Mountain Road, Nora tried to send a text to her partner, Sheriff Grant McCabe. She watched the thin bar on the top of her screen crawl forward, a centimeter at a time, before coming to a sudden stop. A red exclamation mark popped up next to her text, signaling that her message had failed to send.
“No service,” she told Jess. “I’ll call the sheriff’s department when we get to the Lodge and ask for a wellness check. If Ravi isn’t in his apartment, they can keep an eye out for him while they’re out on patrol.”
Jess was about to answer when the wind rammed its shoulder into the side of the car, nearly forcing the vehicle off the road. Jess overcorrected, and the SUV swerved violently for a few seconds. Once they were back in the middle of their lane, Jess kept a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel until the Lodge—a behemoth structure made of granite and river rock—came into view.
A valet waved them under the porte cochere, and a bellhop offered to help with their luggage. Jess gave him her bag but was unable to return his friendly smile.
At the registration desk, Jess was congratulated by the clerk. Sheldon, who stood directly behind Jess, made eye contact with the clerk and shook his head empathically.
The clerk got the message and quickly assigned all three of them rooms.
“Is June here?” Nora asked as she received a room key.
“Yes, ma’am. She’s in her office. Would you like me to call her?”
“That’s okay. We’re close friends, so I know the way.”
Nora had known June Dixon long before she’d become the guest experience manager. Back when June had worked at the resort’s pools, handing out towels and warning guests that the water from the hot springs wasn’t suitable for young children or people with certain preexisting health conditions, she and Nora had teamed up to solve the murder of a visiting businessman.
It had been well over a decade since Nora had found the man’s body on the train tracks behind her tiny house. She and June, along with two other local women, Hester Winthrop and Estella Sadler, had refused to let the stranger’s death go unnoticed. This was when they’d formed the Secret, Book, and Scone Society.
After years of reading books, sharing secrets, and helping their community, the four women became a sisterhood. Theirs was a bond that could never be broken.
Leaving Sheldon to look after Jess, Nora hurried down a long hall to June’s office.
June was on the phone, but when she spotted Nora in the doorway, she motioned for her to come in.
“Okay, son. Be safe. I love you.”
June put down the headset and came around the desk to hug Nora. “Lord, this storm feels downright Shakespearean. Tyson teases me about having a landline, but this boomer is feeling mighty smug about that old phone right now. He’s at my house, enjoying my boomer generator. He had no power and no food at his place.”
Tyson was June’s adult son. He was the manager of the town’s movie theater and lived in an apartment above the box office.
“So, how was the wedding?” asked June.
“It didn’t happen. The groom was a no-show.”
June’s face crumpled in sympathy. “Poor Jess. Where is she now?”
“With Sheldon.”
“And the guests?”
“A few are here. They’re going to stay in the rooms Jess reserved and do what they can to comfort her. We’re talking five or six people, including me and Sheldon, so there’s going to be more food at the reception than we can eat.”
“Not to worry. We’ll add any leftovers to the boxed meals we’re preparing for emergency responders. From what I’m seeing on the news, this storm is a beast. It’s going to rain hard all night and all day tomorrow.”
“Have you heard from Hester or Estella?”
“Not since this morning. Hester closed the bakery early because she was sold out of everything by noon. Estella’s totally on edge. It’s scary to be home with a baby when the wind is howling like a wolf and tree branches are snapping like toothpicks.”
Nora pictured Estella cradling her daughter, an adorable little girl named Lulu, as the trees surrounding their house creaked and swayed. “Wouldn’t they be better off here?”
“They’re coming as soon as Jack finishes up at the diner.” June cocked her head. “Are you staying too?”
“I am now. I came in Jess’s car, so I don’t even have a toothbrush, but that’s not important. The missing groom is important. Can I borrow your phone so I can ask McCabe to visit Ravi’s apartment?”
June gestured at her desk. “My office is yours. I’m going to check in with Sheldon—see if there’s anything I can do for Jess.”
Nora dialed McCabe’s cell phone. When the call didn’t go through, she tried the nonemergency line at the station.
The dispatch officer, a retired teacher named Denise, greeted Nora warmly. “The sheriff is putting up a blockade on Hickory Lane. A massive tree came down and brought a bunch of power lines with it. After that, he’s going to transport some folks to the shelter we set up at the high school. I can radio a message to him if you’d like.”
Nora conveyed her request and then added, “Please tell him that I’m spending the night at the Lodge. And to be safe. You too, Denise.”
“You got it, sweetie.”
In the lobby it was almost possible to forget about the storm.
A fire blazed in the oversized stone fireplace. Guests were comfortably settled on sofas and chairs, books or cocktails in hand. A few still fumbled with their useless cell phones, as if holding the devices at a different angle or scowling at the screens would bring them back to life.
The gentle din of conversation filled the space with calm. Nora couldn’t even hear the wind and rain over the chatter and the soft jazz drifting out of the wall speakers.
She wandered over to the lobby bar, drawn to the graphics on the single TV mounted in one corner. Every stool was taken. Patrons sipped Negronis and appletinis, bourbon on ice, or frosty mugs of craft beer as they talked about possible flight delays, canceled trains, and how the storm was ruining their plans.
“We drove down from Maryland because the kids wanted to go apple picking and we wanted to visit the Cherokee casino. It seemed like a perfect weekend getaway, but we should’ve gone to Vermont,” a woman with a mane of copper hair said to a man wearing an Eagles sweatshirt and a backward baseball hat.
“We’re here looking at colleges. We’ve got so many great schools in Pennsylvania, but my daughter wants to go to college in the South.” He made air quotes with his fingers. “It’s what’s on trend. We’ve been to NC State, Elon, ECU, UNC, and Clemson. We’re supposed to go to App State tomorrow, but it’s not looking good.”
A man in a purple polo shirt waved languidly at the television. “You’d think these hillbillies would be prepared for something like this. Don’t they have sheds full of guns and oil lamps? Pantries stocked with homemade jam and pickled veggies?”
Nora gave him a withering look, but he didn’t notice. He went on to mock the locals by speaking in a slow drawl, sticking his teeth out like a beaver, and hooking his thumbs under imaginary overalls straps.
After laughing at himself, the man signaled for a refill. The bartender ignored him and met Nora’s eye.
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you. I was just looking for weather updates.”
“You a local?”
Nora nodded. “I own the bookstore.”
The man smiled. “My wife loves that place. Calls it her home away from home. Her name’s Mary Catherine. Do you know her?”
Nora returned his smile. “I certainly do. She must’ve read every wartime fiction novel ever written. I’ve never met someone with a keener interest in the world wars than your wife.”
“That’s Mary Catherine for you. We’re watching Foyle’s War for the third time, but I don’t mind. Her parents are both history teachers, so it’s in her blood.”
“Excuse me!” Polo Shirt waved his credit card in the air. “Can I get a Jameson?”
Throwing a glance at the card, the bartender said, “We’re cash only tonight. The credit card system is down.”
“You’ll have to add it to my room bill, because I don’t have cash.”
“Sure. If I could just see your room key?”
Grumbling about having to get the key from his wife, the man slid off his barstool. Nora took his place and stared at the television.
“That guy’s gonna come back, you know,” the man in the Eagles sweatshirt informed her. “He and I were talking about our fantasy teams.”
Nora shrugged. “Guess he’ll have to stand. A hurricane is tearing through my town right now, and this hillbilly wants to be prepared.”
The bartender gave her a wink and held out two bottles of wine. “White or red?”
“She prefers red,” said Sheldon, coming up behind Nora. “I’d love a glass as well, if you don’t mind.”
While the bartender opened a new bottle, Nora shifted on her stool to face Sheldon. “How’s Jess?”
“Confused. Worried. Trying not to cry. I told her to let it out, but she said that would be admitting something bad had happened. She wants to hope for the best for as long as she can.” Sheldon reached for the bowl of mixed nuts and popped a cashew into his mouth. “She’s not coming down. She just can’t do it. But she wants us to eat.”
Nora gestured at the TV screen, where dark green bands of rain blanketed the map of their area. “After seeing that, I should be too worried to be hungry, but my stomach doesn’t care what the radar looks like.”
“Same here. Let’s take our wine and tell the other guests what’s going on.”
The bartender refused to take her money, so Nora put a twenty in his tip jar and wished him luck.
She and Sheldon were heading for the banquet rooms when she saw a flash of flame-colored hair near the end of the hall.
“Estella!”
Estella turned, readjusted the baby on her hip, and hurried over.
“Mis bellezas!” Sheldon exclaimed, holding his arms out wide.
Estella’s nine-month-old daughter, Lulu, squealed in delight as she was deposited in Sheldon’s arms.
“Uncle Sheldon is going to show you a wedding cake. Would you like that? The last time I had wedding cake was when your mama got married. She was the most beautiful bride, and Aunt Hester made her the most beautiful cake. It was a magical night.”
While Sheldon cooed to the ginger-haired, rosy-cheeked baby, Nora put an arm around Estella. “You look stressed. Where’s Jack?”
“Taking our bags to the room. Lulu’s stuff practically filled a whole luggage cart.” Estella watched Sheldon carry her daughter off. “We’re lucky. None of our neighbors have power, and there are maybe two generators on the whole street. It’s going to be chilly tonight. Jack says we have another full day of wind and rain, and things might be worse tomorrow. With all this rain, he’s worried about the river cresting the banks.”
“It’s been almost a hundred years since that happened. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.”
Estella followed Sheldon into the small banquet room. Glancing around at the empty tables, she whispered, “Where is everyone?”
“The groom never made it to the church,” Nora replied in a low voice.
Estella gasped. “The poor bride! Wait. Is this the couple from Sheldon’s book club? Is he surprised, or did he see this coming?”
“He’s gobsmacked. Jess and Ravi are two of the sweetest people he knows. Both are very down to earth. Humble. A little nerdy. Ravi’s an ecologist studying erosion and the impact of human activity on the Appalachian Trail. Jess works from home as a curator. Her specialty is the conservation and restoration of old documents. They literally fell in love at book club and have been on dozens of bookstore dates since then. They’re a good fit. She makes him calm, and he brings her out of her shell.”
“Are they young?”
“Coming from someone in her late forties, I’d say so. Jess is probably twenty-six. Ravi might be a year or two older. They both seem wiser than their years. Like they’ve already figured out what’s important and are content with where they are in life.”
“Until today.”
Sheldon led the way to the buffet table. “There’s no cake. June probably told the servers to box it up, but there’s enough food here for at least twenty people. Estella, you and Jack should eat with us.”
Nora filled a plate and sat at one of the candlelit tables. June came in a few minutes later, carrying a high chair for Lulu.
“Give me that precious baby,” she said, taking Lulu from Sheldon.
After blowing raspberries into Lulu’s palm, June gave her a spoon to play with and looked at her friends. “I wish Hester was here, but she told me she’ll be fine without power. She’s got a gas stove and fireplace. She’s having soup and bread for supper and spending the night reading an Ann Cleeves book set during an autumn storm.”
“I couldn’t read tonight if I tried,” Sheldon said. “Speaking of people we wish were at this table, did you get through to McCabe?”
Nora pushed a roasted potato around on her plate. “He left a message with one. . .
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
