SOLD ON A MONDAY
From New York Times bestselling author Kristina McMorris comes another unforgettable novel inspired by a stunning piece of history.
2 Children for Sale
The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been written by any mother facing impossible choices.
For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family's dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.
At the paper, Lillian Palmer is haunted by her role in all that happened. She is far too familiar with the heartbreak of children deemed unwanted. As the bonds of motherhood are tested, she and Ellis must decide how much they are willing to risk to mend a fractured family.
Inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation, Sold on a Monday is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and the unexpected paths that bring us home.
"Kristina McMorris evokes such a strong sense of place in her writing that to open her books feels less like reading and more like traveling." —BookPage
"Kristina McMorris does what few writers can-transport me right into the middle of the story." —Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants; At the Water's Edge)
"In Sold on a Monday, Kristina McMorris has written a vivid and original story, set against the harsh landscape of the Great Depression. McMorris brilliantly chronicles the way in which a moment's fateful choice can result in a lifetime of harrowing consequences. A masterpiece which poignantly echoes universal themes of loss and redemption, Sold on a Monday is both heartfelt and heartbreaking." —Pam Jenoff (The Orphan's Tale)
"With her signature style, Kristina McMorris once again plucks a devastating heartstring. Readers are transported through time and place to the desperate days of the American Great Depression. A real-life photograph stands as evidence to the heart of this novel: truth revealed, forgiveness found, and a story never to be forgotten." —Sarah McCoy (Marilla of Green Gables; The Baker's Daughter)
"McMorris shines in this poignant and compulsively readable novel about how one reporter's seemingly small mistake in judgment leads to utter catastrophe for children caught in the jaws of the Great Depression. Based upon a haunting historical photograph, and told with finesse and compassion, this story will linger long after the pages have all been turned." —Stephanie Dray (America's First Daughter; My Dear Hamilton)
RUST & STARDUST
Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth's, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he's an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute--unless she does as he says.
This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way.
Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.
"A beautifully written, unnerving tragedy woven from equal measures of hope and menace." —Booklist (starred review)
"Heartrending ... Readers who relish novels based on true events will be both riveted and disturbed by this retelling of one of America's most famous abduction cases." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Riveting suspense ... Grace touches this dark tale ... Greenwood's story will spellbind readers." —Publishers Weekly
"Greenwood's glowing dark ruby of a novel brilliantly transforms the true crime story that inspired Nabokov's Lolita. Shatteringly original and eloquently written, Rust and Stardust is a lot about how what we believe to be true can shape or ruin a life, and the bright lure of innocence pitted against the murk of evil. So ferociously suspenseful, I found myself holding my breath, and so gorgeous and so unsettling in all theroads it might have taken, I kept rereading pages." —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
"A riveting and thoughtful exploration of how the dark secrets of a terrible crime affect and hurt so many--and how light and hope persist in the face of such horrors. Greenwood writes with such compassion and feeling, and she is such a confident, skillful storyteller, that you'll stay up late to find out the fates of her memorable, beautiful characters." —Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17
"A harrowing, ripped-from-the-headlines story of lives altered in the blink of an eye, once again proving her eloquence and dexterity as an author." —Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
Kristina McMorris is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her background includes ten years of directing public relations for an international conglomerate as well as extensive television experience. Inspired by true personal and historical accounts, her novels have garnered twenty national literary awards, and include Letters from Home, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, The Pieces We Keep, and The Edge of Lost, in addition to novellas in the anthologies A Winter Wonderland and Grand Central. A frequent guest speaker and workshop presenter, she holds a BS in international marketing from Pepperdine. She lives with her husband and two sons in Oregon.
T. Greenwood has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Two Rivers was named 2009 Best General Fiction Book at the San Diego Book Awards, and Grace received the same award for 2012. Her eighth novel, Bodies of Water, was a 2014 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Greenwood teaches creative writing for San Diego Writer's Ink, Grossmont College, and online for The Writer's Center. She and her husband, Patrick, live in San Diego, CA, with their two daughters.
