A Light Kept True

A mysterious light. A stranger's death. And the truth about a daughter who never came home. Four years ago, on a bitter February night, Carrie Pettengill set out across the icy Thoroughfare in a small boat, carrying something precious beneath her arm. Her final radio message was simple: she could see the lighthouse. Then she vanished. For four long years, her mother, seventy-four-year-old lighthouse keeper Janie Pettengill, has searched for answers. Now, as the anniversary of Carrie's disappearance approaches, a stranger from Quebec is found drowned beside an unlit marker on Bell Ledge. Everyone calls it a tragic accident. But the day before his death, the man told the local innkeeper he needed to speak to Janie about something that happened four years ago. And that evening, a retired ferry captain witnessed something impossible—a mysterious light blinking on a ledge where no light has ever stood. Someone knows what happened to Carrie. And someone is willing to kill to keep the truth hidden. After fifty-five years tending Hagstone Head Light, Janie knows the difference between a lighthouse beam and a deliberate signal. With help from her loyal Wednesday Watch, her grandson Toby's meticulous tide charts, and a recording of Carrie's final radio transmission, she begins the investigation she has dreaded—and desperately needed—for years. But the deeper Janie digs, the more she discovers that her daughter's disappearance may be connected to a terrible wrong buried in Hagstone's past. As winter storms close in and long-held loyalties begin to crumble, Janie must confront the secrets of an island she has loved all her life. And finally, she must listen to what Carrie was trying to tell her that last terrible night. The sea has kept her daughter's secret for four years. This time, Janie Pettengill won't let it stay buried. A Light Kept True is the ninth and final book in The Hagstone Light Mysteries, bringing Janie's unforgettable journey to an emotional and satisfying conclusion. An atmospheric Maine coastal cozy mystery featuring a wonderfully determined older sleuth, enduring friendships, a close-knit island community, and one final mystery that changes everything. A clean cozy mystery with no graphic violence or profanity, a complete, fairly clued murder investigation, and plenty of winter atmosphere, lighthouse charm, and New England coastal intrigue. The murder mystery stands on its own, while readers of the full series will finally discover what happened to Carrie Pettengill on her last crossing. For fifty-five years, Janie has kept the light burning for others. Now it's time for the light to lead her home.