The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard

A Novel

By: Michael Callahan

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Helen Laser

“I was completely captivated by Michael Callahan’s The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a history mystery you won’t be able to put down, with strong female characters and plenty of secrets. Plus, it takes you behind the scenes in vintage Hollywood and Martha’s Vineyard. A perfect beach read!”—Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling author of Loyalty and The Truth About the Devlins

A tantalizing novel of two women bound by blood but divided by a long-buried secret, and the island that holds the key to the fateful summer that changed everything forever.

In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director…

Until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off.

Almost sixty years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior television producer in Manhattan, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles.

Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.

Mercy retreats to the island nursing a broken heart, only to be drawn to the roguish Ren Sewards, who is not just the simple oysterman he appears to be but a scion of one of the island’s wealthy founding families. With her attraction to Ren quickly growing, Mercy soon finds herself entangled in the intrigues of the tightly knit community and the secrets of the Sewards.

Alternating between Mercy and Kit’s timelines, including excerpts from letters Mercy wrote the summer she disappeared, The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard unfurls into a heart-stopping story of love, betrayal, and even murder.

Lord have Mercy

I was a bit skeptical about liking this story when I first started it. Let me just say, “WHAT?!?!”
Meet cutes, love stories, intrigue and secrets. What more could you possibly ask for? Just when I thought I had it all figured out, boom, twist. I loved it!

A great era novel

It took a while to get going, yet once the story started to move, I couldn’t put it down. Great ending, too!

I love letters.

What a great story of love and secrets.
The story of a love long past and a new love is Beautiful.

Beautiful storytelling

I loved this story; the characters drew me in immediately and I was invested in their story. Having lived all of my adult life in a small, historic town on the water, I felt like Michael Callahan captured the nuances of the quirky and complicated connections that develop over time and generations. I can’t wait to read his next book.

The sum of the conclusion

The sum of the conclusion is not equal to the rich journey towards it. Others may feel differently so I would recommend this book.