The Keeping Place #newrelease by @MaeClair1

by Joan Hall
on February 19, 2024

Hey, Readers! I’m always excited when Mae Clair releases a new book, so this time isn’t an exception. Her newest novel The Keeping Place is now available for pre-order. I can’t wait to get my copy. I know I won’t be disappointed.

Mae is with us today to talk about her new dual timeline story. Please welcome her.

Hi, Joan! Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog today. I’m delighted to be here, sharing my upcoming release The Keeping Place, a dual timeline mystery which is now available for pre-order! Most readers know me as someone who loves weaving urban legends and threads of the supernatural into my stories. The Keeping Place took an entirely different turn.

Well… there is a small thread that does involve an old town legend and a ghost, but nothing that takes center stage as in my other books. This one is about relationships, and what happens to an estranged mother/daughter when the remains of the youngest daughter are discovered ten years after she disappeared. It’s a bit more of a “quiet” mystery then I usually write.

Janie was just a child when she went missing. Her older sister, Nicole, was tasked with looking after her, but instead she dragged Janie to her senior party. Then—as older teens are sometimes prone to do—neglected to keep an eye on her. For the last ten years, it’s believed she wandered away and drowned in a nearby creek. Can you see why Nicole and her mother have been estranged?

In the excerpt below, Nicole meets her stepmother, Amelia, for lunch. Amelia gives her a letter with no return address other than Hornwood, PA­. Nicole instinctively knows it’s from her mother.

EXCERPT:
Amelia worked at cutting up her grilled chicken. “Aren’t you curious what your mother has to say?”

“It can wait.” It’s waited ten years. Nicole prodded an olive with her fork. “You were going to show me pictures of the new bathroom.”

“That can wait, too. It’s not every day you get a letter from Hornwood.”

Did anyone ever get a letter from Hornwood? Nicole used to think the place was stuck in a time warp, tucked between miles of farm fields and yards of abandoned rail tracks, a dot in the middle of nowhere. No wonder the Boone Line had gone belly up.

Her gaze flicked to the window and the bustling street beyond. Across the road, a woman holding a toddler waited for the WALK signal while two teenage girls pecked their cellphones under a traffic light. A tractor-trailer bottled up the intersection as it made a wide right turn, headed for the freeway and the bypass toward Baltimore. Enzo was a far cry from sleepy Hornwood, always in motion, humming with energy. Too bad it had never felt like home.

“Would you like more tea?” A young server materialized at her elbow, beaming a smile that made Nicole feel maudlin by comparison.

“No, thank you.” She waited until the girl refilled Amelia’s glass then left before parting with her latest news. “I got a phone call from Leese Medical yesterday.”

“And?” Amelia seemed to be holding her breath.

More olive prodding. “I didn’t get the job.”

“Oh, Nic, I’m sorry. I know how much you were counting on it.”

“Three interviews and I lost to an in-house transfer.”

“Something will give. It has to.”

“Hopefully before my unemployment runs out.”

Amelia dabbed her lips with a napkin. “I wish I hadn’t sold the business after your father died.”

“It wouldn’t matter. I want to work in my field.” She’d never had a knack for retail.

“I know. But if you need anything in the meantime. Rent money, or—”

“No, I’m fine.” She shouldn’t have made the reference to unemployment. Amelia had always been gracious and loving. Especially when saddled with a moody seventeen-year-old after only six months of marriage. She might have told her new husband she didn’t want his troubled teenage daughter living with them, but she’d taken the higher road and welcomed Nicole into their home. Now a decade later, three years had passed since a heart attack claimed the life of Nicole’s father. Glory hadn’t shown for the funeral, instead sending an extravagant spray of flowers to the gravesite.

Glory.

Her mouth tightened. Sometimes it was hard thinking of Hornwood’s near-famous actress as Mom. Her gaze strayed to the envelope. Without a word, she broke the seal. Amelia cocked her head, apparently surprised by her change of heart.

A small square of paper fluttered to the table, its ragged edge giving the impression of having been torn from a pad in hasty afterthought. Judging by the signature, it may well have been.

“It’s from Vin McCain.”

“The boy you used to date in high school?”

The boy she hadn’t spoken to since leaving Pennsylvania for Maryland. He’d been with her at Elderberry Creek the night Janie drowned. All of them—Vin, Marshall, Chelsea and Kevin. So many others, yet no one had done anything until it was too late. For years she’d tried to hate Marshall, hate Kevin, even Vin. In the end, there was no one to hate but herself.

“Nic.” When she didn’t answer, her stepmother leaned forward. “What does he say?”

Nicole passed her the paper.

They found Janie. You need to come home.

As in most dual-timeline mysteries, The Keeping Place delivers a mystery in the present as well as the past. I hope the blurb will tempt you further:

BLURB:
In the town of Hornwood, the past is always present . . .

Nicole Seabrooke has been wracked with guilt since the night of her younger sister’s disappearance ten years ago. Her mother, Glory, tasked her with watching over Janie. Instead, Nicole dragged her to a high school party, then failed to keep an eye on her. Police believed she drowned, but her body was never found.

A decade later, her remains are discovered.

Nicole returns to Hornwood when new evidence indicates Janie’s death may have been a homicide. With the help of Detective Vin McCain, her high school boyfriend, Nicole begins to piece together what took place the night her sister disappeared—a task that further complicates her relationship with Glory and places Nicole in the crosshairs of a killer. One who will do whatever it takes to keep the truth about Janie’s death from being revealed.

Even if it means killing again.

Thanks again for hosting me today, Joan. I appreciate the opportunity to share The Keeping Place with your readers. I’ve held onto this novel for two years, uncertain how I wanted to publish it. As an author, I naturally like every book I’ve written, but The Keeping Place is my personal favorite—perhaps because it’s so different in tone from my other mysteries.

I still utilize dual timelines, but rather than having centuries between them, my timelines are separated by a mere ten years.

It’s my sincere hope readers will enjoy the story.

RELEASE DATE IS MARCH 5TH

PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON

Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:

Amazon| BookBub| Newsletter Sign-Up
Website | Blog| Twitter/X | Goodreads| 

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Guest Author

Tags:

Dual TimelineFictionGuest AuthorsMae ClairMysteryNew Release

56 Responses

  9. Joan, thanks so much for helping me launch my book tour for The Keeping Place. It is always a pleasure to be on your blog. Many thanks for the spotlight opportunity! ❤️

    Reply

  10. Great review, Joan. If the book is even half as good as the cover, it is a winner. I’ll grab my KU copy March 5th! And you’re right about Mae’s books–there is yet to be one I didn’t enjoy.

    Sharing.

    Reply

  15. Congratulations, Mae. I have my copy of The Keeping Place on pre-order and look forward to reading it. Thanks for hosting, Joan. Exciting times!

    Reply

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