The Light Keeper's Legacy (A Chloe Ellefson Mystery)
Historian Chloe Ellefson is looking forward to being a guest curator at a lighthouse on Lake Michigan’s remote Rock Island. The temporary job allows her a break from her micromanaging boss at Old World Wisconsin and the opportunity to ponder if she is emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with cop Roelke McKenna. Chloe soon becomes immersed in the lives of long-ago lighthouse keeper Emily Betts and island resident Ragna Anderson, whose husband died under suspicious circumstances. Chloe’s story, set in 1982, alternates with Emily and Ragna’s, set in 1869. When Chloe discovers the bodies of two women, both of whom have washed up on the lakeshore, she attempts to investigate their murders, finding that her research ties in with contemporary events. Framed by the history of lighthouses and their keepers and the story of fishery disputes through time, the multiple plots move easily across the intertwined past and present. --Sue OBrien