For ten long years Jodie Breault has been hounded by the mystery surrounding her mother's drowning and her father's disappearance in a boating accident on Lake Champlain, VT.

A senior at a Connecticut high school, Jodie resides with her parents' friends, a foreign-born couple that harbors many secrets. That year she falls in love with a classmate, C. Travis Jones, AKA Jonesy, but they are separated when he goes off to college in California and remains there. Meanwhile she seeks answers from a medium and finds solace in reading a novel her mother has written. Armed with lessons from her father's Abenaki culture, she spots foreshadowing of events in her mother's novel and begins to suspect foul play in the so-called 'accident'. Over time she settles for a humdrum life as the wife of an auto mechanic--that is--until Jonesy reappears.

As the tenth anniversary of the tragedy nears, Jodie experiences a number of startling revelations. She learns she has a younger half sister who provides many of the answers Jodie has sought. But this comes with unexpected twists of fate--suspense, betrayals and death--forcing Jodie to make soul-wrenching decisions.

M. Pilotte's Tales from Wexford Falls is a well written and enjoyable read. With an interesting blend of characters, some who appear in her previous novel and some the reader will meet for the first time, Pilotte has created a collection of short stories set in the small town of Wexford Falls. With their challenges, adventures, dreams and secrets, these characters and their stories are charming, sometimes quirky, but always entertaining.

--ELIZABETH SMITH, author of French Crossing and The Gift