An ambitious smalltown girl, unlucky in love, is called back home from New York City upon inheriting her eccentric aunt's estate, but the will is fraught with off-the-wall clauses involving work, family, and having to find a husband by next year.

"The new Chief Inspector Gamache novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author."-- Provided by publisher. When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller...

"It's the moment that Harmony Island has been waiting for: the reading of Charlotte Cane's will. After I returned to my small hometown six months ago to attend my estranged grandmother's funeral, I swore I would never go back. That is, until my grandmother's lawyer calls me up. If I don't return to Harmony Island and fulfill my grandmother's stipulations, the generationally owned family inn will be turned over to the state and sold off to the highest...

"... Nina Fleet's life ought to be as sweet as a Georgia peach. Nina's barely settled into her new B&B-to-be when a "penguin" shows up on her porch. Harry Westcott is making ends meet as an ice cream shop's mascot and has a letter from his great-aunt, pledging to leave him the house. Gregory Bainbridge intends to turn a convent into a golfing community, so Nina is persuaded to take in the elderly nuns. Whoever is out to stop Harry from contesting...

Daphne Ballinger is required to marry within the next year in order to inherit her eccentric late aunt's sizeable estate. She also must take over Aunt Dee's newspaper advice column. Though a socialite neighbor tries to help Daphne find a perfect man even if it includes speed dating, she finds greater rewards in helping a young, parentless girl with an ailing grandmother.

After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small island off the coast of Florida where she spent summers growing up to help her mother settle the family estate. For Marlow, the trip is a chance to reconnect after too long apart. It's also the perfect escape to help her feel grounded again, one she's happy to share with friends Aida and Claire, who are hoping to hit reset on their lives, too. A leisurely beachfront summer...

The portrayal of life on a Southern plantation and the horror and fear roused in the negroes by what they believed were manifestations of the ancestral "ha'nt."