Francesca Mayhew, the daughter of a career diplomat, had lived most of her life in foreign countries, and did not call anyplace home. But, she suddenly found herself alone in the world when her parents were killed in a small, third-world country. At the insistence of her motherŐs two maiden aunts, she is persuaded to return to Edgecombe where her motherŐs family were prominent members of the Connecticut community.

Francesca discovered that her aunts were suffering the burden of two heart-breaking lossesŃthat of her mother, and of Keal English, the nephew of their dear friend, Isabel Lynch. It seems that he had been presumed drowned when his sailing yacht had been found adrift three miles from shore. Francesca was soon to learn that there was more intrique in the house on Holly Street than in any of the embassies in which her father ever served.

Mary Catherine Hanson is a published author and a painter who has lived and traveled throughout Europe. She lives and works in upstate New York.

The House on Holly Street is her first novel for Avalon.