The fourth in Jess Montgomery's evocative Kinship series, The Echoes combines exquisite storytelling with extraordinary crime plotting. "A beautifully written tour de force." —Linda Castillo on The Stills As July 4, 1928 approaches, Sheriff Lily Ross and her family look forward to the opening of an amusement park in a nearby town, created by Chalmer Fitzpatrick—a veteran and lumber mill owner. When Lily is alerted to the possible drowning of a girl, she goes to investigate, and discovers schisms going back several generations, in an ongoing dispute over the land on which Fitzpatrick has built the park. Lily's family life is soon rattled, too, with the revelation that before he died, her brother had a daughter, Esme, with a woman in France, and arrangements have been made for Esme to immigrate to the U.S. to live with them. But Esme never makes it to Kinship, and soon Lily discovers that she has been kidnapped. Not only that, but a young woman is indeed found murdered in the fishing pond on Fitzpatrick's property, at the same time that a baby is left on his doorstep. As the two crimes interweave, Lily must confront the question of what makes family: can we trust those we love? And what do we share, and what do we keep secret?

This novel brings back Max & T.G. Schaffer and Chase & Shannon Westmore as well as NASCAR history at The Rock in Rockingham, N.C. The protagonist is a dance instructor named Megan Garrison. The first time she realizes that there's someone stalking her, is the third consecutive night she has heard the echo of footsteps following her; she steps into the building's shadow to see who is coming up behind her. She can tell it's a man because of his build and height but he is wearing a baseball cap pulled low on his face and in the shadows of early twilight she cannot identify him. Megan comes into contact with a race driver named Ryan Anderson who is determined to win her affection; thus the struggle begins with the Schaffers and the Westmores trying to arrange a romance; Megan fights her growing attraction to Ryan but they come together as a turbulent couple struggling to control the evident passion between them as they try to catch a vicious killer who has already murdered one woman on the main street in Hamlet in front of a new bar called the Sports Connection and he has now set his sights on Megan as his next victim. Ryan tries to protect her but it's difficult to ward off violence when the unknown catalyst is so determined to take the life of a pretty, successful young woman.

“The Echoes of the Soul.” This volume continues in a related element of the former yet; more the flavor of an anthology, giving readers a closer view of the writer’s journey with a mixture of encounters– inspirational quotes, views, passion, mystical, love, deceit, survival, pain and motivational poetic variations and narrative, limerick, metrical, romantic, dramatic and classic patterns.

Amidst the chaos of contemporary times, societal leaders grapple with challenges echoing the epic struggles of mythological heroes, mirroring the eternal quest for justice and balance. In the modern narrative, echoes of ancient myths resonate, as humanity continues its journey, facing timeless dilemmas with a contemporary twist.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.