Lea Wait – författare

A young enslaved boy who dreams of sailing must choose whether to risk everything to fight for freedom in this historical middle grade novel.Sometimes a man has to risk everything to do what’s right. Doing it is what makes him a man. Thirteen-year-old Michael knows he is lucky. Few enslaved people 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 when Michael’s protective mistress dies, everything changes, and Michael’s friend Jim encourages him to run away. Michael is torn. Should he risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? Is staying safe worth staying enslaved?

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 people she''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.

Maggie Summer has three loves: her antique print business, Shadows; her career as a community college professor in Somerset County, New Jersey; and the new man in her life, Will Brewer. Her biological clock is pushing her to decide whether she''s ready to add a fourth love: an adopted child. Although Will is on the road just now, Maggie''s life is full. She uses prints by Currier & Ives, Thomas Nast, and William Ludwell Sheppard to illustrate her lectures on American cultural history, and Oliver and Dorothy Whitcomb, a wealthy couple who are on the college board, are two of her best customers. When the Whitcombs design and dedicate a special dormitory for single parents and their children, Maggie is thrilled to become the faculty adviser to the young parents. Her new assignment gives her plenty of time to think about what single parenthood would mean for her. Plenty of time -- until one of the young mothers is poisoned, and the web of danger at the dorm threatens to encircle Maggie. There is a killer on campus. Is it an outsider or someone Maggie knows and trusts? Does someone want to destroy Whitcomb House or the college? And is Maggie in as much danger as her students? As always, Maggie finds the answers to her questions in the antique prints she knows and loves. And this time, torn between her own needs and those of her students, the most important discoveries Maggie makes are about herself. Rich with appealing characters and fascinating insiders'' lore about antique prints, Shadows on the Ivy is the best yet in this award-nominated series from an author who brilliantly brings together her knowledge of prints and her love of storytelling.

The third antique print mystery in Lea Wait’s Agatha Award–nominated Maggie Summer series which The New York Times Book Review says, “beckons like a weekend in the country.”Antique print dealer Maggie Summer is teaching a college course on "Myths in American Culture," using prints by Currier & Ives and other 19th-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...

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....

Maine. Antiques. August. That's all Maggie Summer requires for a guaranteed fun getaway. But there is an unexplained urgency behind the invitation from her former college roommate, Amy Douglas. The eighteenth-century house Amy and her husband Drew are restoring in tiny Madoc, Maine, is perfect -- or it will be, once Maggie supplies just the right antique prints. But Amy's type A personality is bordering on hysteria: could her desperation to get pregnant explain the sound of the crying infant that haunts her nights? Perhaps the hostile neighbors -- resentful of transplanted New Yorkers Amy and Drew -- have Amy on edge. But when the body of a missing teenaged girl turns up on their land, Maggie knows the threat is authentic. Now everyone, even Maggie's antiques-hunter friend Will Brewer, is cast in a suspicious light -- as she scratches beneath the surface of small-town New England life, and blows the dust off secrets hidden inside a grand Maine home for generations.

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....

"Sometimes a man has to risk everything to do what''s right. Doing it is what makes him a man."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 when Michael''s protective mistress dies, everything changes, and Michael''s friend Jim encourages him to run away. Michael is torn. Should he risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? Or should he stay -- is staying safe worth staying a slave?

"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.

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In the world of antiques dealing, there are minor calamities...like accidentally selling a rare engraving for $170 instead of $1,700. And then there are worse tragedies -- such as the chain of suspicious deaths among dealers in the weeks prior to the Rensselaer County Spring Antiques Fair. For Maggie Summer, owner of Shadow Antiques and an antique print expert, the threat of murder is far from her mind as she displays her treasures at the prestigious show. Though rumors abound, security is tight, and Maggie has been in the business too long to be easily rattled, she can't help observing her colleagues with fresh eyes. And when sudden death claims a victim in their midst, Maggie will race to stop a killer -- if she can distinguish those she suspects from the real deal.

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.

The Mainely Needlepointers are about to learn that no man is an island—especially when greedy developers want his land . . .   Hermit Jesse Lockhart lives alone on King’s Island, three miles east of Haven Harbor, Maine, where he’s created a private sanctuary for the endangered Great Cormorants. But when a wealthy family wants to buy the island and Jesse’s cousin Simon petitions for power of attorney to force him to sell, Jesse is the one who becomes endangered.   Mainely Needlepointer Dave Perry, who befriended Jesse in the VA hospital, rallies the group to his defense. Angie Curtis and the ravelers stitch “Save the King’s Island Cormorants” pillows and sell T-shirts to pay for Jesse’s legal counsel. But tragically, on a visit to the island, Angie finds Jesse dead. Now the search is on for a common thread that can tie the murdered man to his killer . . .   “Offers a wonderful sense of place and characters right from the very beginning. Highly recommended.” —Suspense Magazine on Threads of Evidence

The USA Today bestselling author of Dangling by a Thread serves up “a taut, tasty mystery . . . remains a puzzle until the end” (Boothbay Register).  In the coastal town of Haven Harbor, blood runs thicker than water—and just as freely . . . Antique dealer Sarah Byrne has never unspooled the truth about her past to anyone—not even friend and fellow Mainely Needlepointer Angie Curtis. But the enigmatic Aussie finally has the one thing she’s searched for all her life—family. And now she and long-lost half-brother, Ted Lawrence, a wealthy old artist and gallery owner in town, are ready to reveal their secret connection . . . Ted’s adult children are suspicious of their newfound aunt Sarah—especially after Ted, in declining health, announces plans to leave her his museum-worthy heirloom paintings. So when Ted is poisoned to death during a lobster bake, everyone assumes she’s guilty. If Sarah and Angie can’t track down the real murderer in time, Sarah’s bound to learn how delicate—and deadly—family dynamics can truly be . . .  Praise for the Mainely Needlepoint mysteries “Offers a wonderful sense of place and characters right from the very beginning. Highly recommended.”—Suspense Magazine   “A cozy debut that hits all the sweet spots: small town, family ties, and a crew of intriguing personalities.”—Library Journal    “For a trip to Maine for the cost of a book, this is the author to read.”—Kings River Life Magazine

“A snow-sprinkled, holly-merry, twinkling page-turner of a mystery” from the USA Today bestselling author of Tightening the Threads (Kingdom Books).  Christmas in Haven Harbor, Maine, means family, trouble, and murder . . .   This Yuletide season, there’s no time for Angie Curtis and Patrick West to linger under the mistletoe. Patrick’s being needled by his mother—movie star Skye West—to set the stage for a perfect white Christmas as she brings her costar, screenwriters, and director home for the holidays. With his mother’s long list of wishes, Patrick’s becoming unraveled. To help, the Mainely Needlepointers offer to decorate Skye’s Victorian mansion and create needlepoint pillows as gifts for the guests.   But not long after the celebrity celebrants invade Haven Harbor, an unscripted tragedy occurs. Then some questionable Christmas cookies make Patrick sick. Before Santa arrives at the town pier on a lobster boat, Angie and the Needlepointers need to trim down the naughty list, catch a cold-hearted killer, and wrap up the case . . .  Praise for the Mainely Needlepoint mysteries “Offers a wonderful sense of place and characters right from the very beginning. Highly recommended.”—Suspense Magazine   “A cozy debut that hits all the sweet spots: small town, family ties, and a crew of intriguing personalities.”—Library Journal    “For a trip to Maine for the cost of a book, this is the author to read.”—Kings River Life Magazine

Raveler Angie Curtis gets tangled in a historical mystery. “For a trip to Maine for the cost of a book, this is the author to read.” —Kings River Life Magazine  Angie’s first auction may turn out to be her last—when she bids on a coat of arms that someone would literally kill to possess . . .   Tagging along to an estate sale with her fellow Needlepointer, antiques shop owner Sarah Byrne, Angie Curtis impulsively bids on a tattered embroidery of a coat of arms. When she gets her prize back home to Haven Harbor, she discovers a document from 1757 behind the framed needlework—a claim for a child from a foundling hospital. Intrigued, Angie is determined to find the common thread between the child and the coat of arms.   Accepting her reporter friend Clem Walker’s invitation to talk about her find on the local TV news, Angie makes an appeal to anyone who might have information. Instead, both women receive death threats. When Clem is found shot to death in a parking lot, Angie fears her own life may be in jeopardy. She has to unravel this historical mystery—or she may be the next one going, going . . . gone . . .  Praise for the Mainely Needlepoint mysteries   “Offers a wonderful sense of place and characters right from the very beginning. Highly recommended.” —Suspense Magazine   “A cozy debut that hits all the sweet spots: small town, family ties, and a crew of intriguing personalities.” —Library Journal

In this coastal New England town, folks take care of the needy—but someone is killing without kindness . . . Ike Hamilton is a part of the Haven Harbor community just like anyone else, though he’s fallen on hard times and has to make do on disability checks and deposit bottles. Most of the locals do what they can to help him out, and needlepointing partners Angie and Sarah are happy to see him at the annual Blessing of the Fleet, honoring all those lost at sea over the centuries. But when harmless Ike is stabbed, suspicion quickly falls on a troubled teenage boy who’s new in town. Angie’s convinced that young Leo is innocent—but if he didn’t do it, who did? Turns out Ike may have appeared simple-minded, but he knew a few secrets that someone might have murdered him to keep quiet. Angie sets out to trace Ike’s bottle-collecting route to find out what he witnessed—and for this killer, there may be no redemption . . .

Haven Harbor is an authentic coastal Maine town—which makes it the perfect location for a new film production. But now it’s become the scene of a crime . . . Needlepointers Angie and Sarah are helping with set design for the movie being shot in their little New England hometown—but as the lighthouse and the wharves bustle with activity, a real-life drama is about to unfold. The producer, Hank Stoddard, has been harassing the pretty young female lead, and the two exchanged heated words at a lobster bake. Now someone’s lowered the boom on him . . . After a wayward piece of sound equipment sends him to his death, theories fly about who went off-script. Meanwhile, a local woman’s tragic story about a true love lost at sea, which originally inspired the film, may lead to murderous revelations from long ago. Angie’s got to unravel these mysteries, and may need to give more than one killer the hook . . .

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.

Returning to the quaint coastal town of Harbor Haven, Maine—a place she once called home—Angie Curtis finds her memories aren''t all quite pleasant ones. . .After leaving a decade ago, Angie has been called back to Harbor Haven by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother''s disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder.The bright spot in Angie''s homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called Mainely Needlepointers. But when a shady business associate of the stitchers dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, Charlotte and Angie become suspects. As Angie starts to weave together clues, she discovers that this new murder may have ties to her own mother''s cold case. . .

“Deep atmosphere, secrets from the past and a mystery . . . another winner” from the USA Today bestselling author of Twisted Threads (RT Book Reviews).   It’s hard to imagine anything bad ever happening in picturesque Haven Harbor, Maine—until a famous face rolls into town and unthreads some very dark secrets . . . Angie Curtis and the Mainely Needlepointers are all too familiar with the Gardener estate. The crumbling Victorian mansion, known as “Aurora,” has been sitting vacant for nearly twenty-five years—and some say it’s haunted by the ghost of Jasmine Gardener, the teenage girl who died there in 1970 under mysterious circumstances . . . Harbor Haven is abuzz with excitement when Hollywood actress Skye West decides to buy Aurora and sell off its furnishings. And Angie is intrigued when Skye asks her to appraise the estate’s sizable collection of needlepoint pictures. But the more she examines the pieces, the more they seem to point toward Jasmine’s murder—and the murderer—and it’s up to her to stitch the clues together . . .  Praise for the Mainely Needlepoint mysteries “Offers a wonderful sense of place and characters right from the very beginning. Highly recommended.”—Suspense Magazine   “A cozy debut that hits all the sweet spots: small town, family ties, and a crew of intriguing personalities.”—Library Journal    “For a trip to Maine for the cost of a book, this is the author to read.”—Kings River Life Magazine