Coming This Summer – 2025

My new novel, Local Honey; set in 1951

The 1950s were a pivotal time in America.
The country was still recovering from the trauma of the Second World War, while also entering a period of great economic expansion. But the decade also came with strict social rules and crippling class divisions. Not everyone was able to participate in the new prosperity,

While the book is at times serious, humorous and touching, there is a cloud of desperation and moral ambiguity that hangs in the background. It’s the story of Becky Bivens, who returns to her hometown of Riverbend, Massachusetts, ten years after her family fled – because her mother’s crimes were uncovered.  The women who find refuge at the Bivens farm become social outcasts who find themselves facing some stark choices.

Becky wants to build a simple produce stand on the property where she once lived. Her intentions are to raise bees, sell honey, and restore her shattered life, while also helping other displaced women.

Local Honey is also the story of Jim Yarrow, a wounded World War II veteran who felt his bitterness fade when he found love, family, and a calm life as a small-town police officer. He never expected the woman he loved during his senior year of high school to suddenly reappear in his life.

Becky has lived a hardscrabble existence. Her struggles to survive helped her understand why her mother made some troubling and provocative choices years before. She soon learns those choices still reverberate in Riverbend, where some people believe the Bivens Farm should never rise again.

The story told in Local Honey is part love triangle, part class struggle, and part dreamy window into the lost New England of the 1950s. The scenes range from rural farms, to the gritty slums of Boston, to brief flashbacks of battlefields. I believe readers who enjoyed books such as The Bridges of Madison County, Where the Crawdads Sing, or The Keeper of Stars will also enjoy Local Honey.