Newfoundland, 1895

Alice and John MacDonald, both running from pasts that were too traumatic to face, meet by chance and stay together in a fragile world that’s rife with lies and secrets. The only thing they have in common is the love for a seven-year-old child, Beatrice, whom they have raised since she was a baby.

When an escaped murderer triggers a series of events that will significantly change the lives of John and Alice and jeopardize the life of their darling daughter, they must take drastic action to protect the welfare of the child. Follow John and Alice as they are forced to leave the wilds of Labrador for an isolated future in Holyrood, Newfoundland, only to have their world turned upside down when they must face the consequences of the lives they lived.

As the reality of their past unfolds with disastrous outcomes, will it mean they lose Beatrice forever to the mother who has longed for the child—a child born from a vicious assault and given away by a cruel stepmother—and is now eager to make her part of her new family?

First and foremost, Ida Linehan Young is a grandmother to the most precious little boys, Parker and Samuel, a mother to three adult children, Sharon, Stacey, and Shawna, and a wife to Thomas. In her busy daily life, Ida works in the information technology sector of the federal government of Canada, and she volunteers her time in the community of Conception Bay South with the Kiwanis Club of Kelligrews. Ida had a fascination with writing in her high school days, when she dabbled in poetry and essays. In 2012, she became serious about her writing with a story to tell, and that led to her memoir, No Turning Back: Surviving the Linehan Family Tragedy, in 2014. Having found a passion for writing, and with a love of local history and lore, she published four works of historical fiction: Being Mary Ro (2018), The Promise (2019), The Liars (2020), and The Stolen Ones (2021). In June 2021, the first three novels were issued the Silver Medal for Best Series—Fiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The fourth novel in the series, The Stolen Ones, won the NL Reads 2022 competition and the Margaret Duley Award. The novel was also a 2022 Bronze Medal Winner (Historical Fiction) of the eLit Awards, presented by the Jenkins Group. Ida’s second work of non-fiction, If I Cry I’ll Fill the Ocean, appeared on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list. In 2023, Ida published her first work of speculative fiction, The Room Upstairs, which appeared on the Atlantic Books Today bestsellers list. With strong influences from the familial art of storytelling passed down by her father, Ed Linehan, and her maternal grandfather, Frank Power, Ida writes stories about her beloved province, Newfoundland and Labrador. She enjoys researching events of the late nineteenth century and weaving fictional characters through historical tales that complement that cultural richness, renewing interest in the province’s storied past. Sometimes she writes across different genres just to tell a story.

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