DARBY CREEK

About the Book

Abandoned by her husband, Dorothy O’Hare is left to raise a nine-year-old twin daughters in a Boston suburb. Five years later Jane suffers a tragic accident, after which a trial ensues where Dorothy is awarded a large settlement on Jane’s behalf. Scandalized by the verdict and shunned by the townspeople, she decides to move back west with her surviving daughter, Jean. As if by coincidence, a letter arrives from Ohio informing her of her inheritance, the family corn plantation she left several years earlier. The move affords Dorothy a second chance at romance as the overseer and the foreman of the acreage aid her in the running of the farm. Her daughter is threatened, however, as evil roams the homestead in the guise of the ghoulish housekeeper, Sarah Higgins. In the manner of Daphne du Maurier’s infamous Mrs. Danvers, Higgins’ nefarious presence drives Jean to question the validity of her very own existence. As a buffer, Sarah’s young grandson Benjamin offers her friendship which she mistakenly takes for love. Perhaps the approaching storm raging in the Gulf will turn things around. Meanwhile an eerie, portentous calm settles in as tensions mount, fueled by the monotony of the sun and the long summer drought…the rains come…

About the Author

Diane O’Keefe grew up in Massachusetts. She has written a memoir, Childhood Revisited; Icarus at the Gate, a sci-fi time travel about the Salem witch trials of 1692; Jar of Secrecy, a psychological thriller and is currently working on a sequel to Darby Creek Summer 2004. The mother of three and grandmother of eight, she resides in New England.