Reviewed by Barbara Buhrer, MyShelf.Com
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Grace and Melanie Hammond's parents were reclusive, remote, withdrawn, absorbed with each other. The girls' only love and care came from Jemma, the Hammond's housekeeper.

Grace has recurring nightmares about nearly drowning and has a pathological fear of water. She is constantly trying to find the reason behind the nightmares and for her parents' remoteness. Her husband Adam, a successful cardiac surgeon, doesn't understand her problems. Her anchors to sanity are their daughters, Kate and Melanie.

After her parents' double suicide. Grace is bequeathed a home in Sabbath Landing, a small town in upstate New York. The home is on Canterbury Island in the middle of Diamond Lake. No one knew of the home's existence.

Cancelling a New Year's trip to Aspen with Adam and Kate, she drives to Sabbath Landing drawn by curiosity about a home they never knew about and why it had been left to her.

Once there she is overcome with a feeling of peace and belonging. She meets fishing guide Luke Keegan, whose past, unknown to her, is bound to her family. She learns of the tragedy forty years ago which had such a traumatic effect on her parents. Here she finds completeness, serenity and happiness.

The story flows smoothly with the reader's attention held throughout. The characters are explored in depth and given real strengths and weaknesses. There is an excellent sense of time and place. This is a compelling story of a woman's search for answers to an incomplete life and her struggle to survive emotionally.