Tribute Hardcover - 2008

by Roberts, Nora

Virginia's Shenandoah Valley is a long way from Hollywood.And that's exactly how Cilla McGowan wants it.Cilla, a former child star who has found more satisfyingwork as a restorer of old houses, has come to her grandmother'sfarmhouse, tools at her side, to rescue it from ruin. Sadly, no onewas able to save her grandmother, the legendary Janet Hardy.An actress with a tumultuous life, Janet entertained glamorousguests and engaged in decadent affairs but died of an overdosein this very house more than thirty years earlier. To thisday, Janet haunts Cilla's dreams. And during waking hours, Cillais haunted by her melodramatic, five-times-married mother,who carried on in the public spotlight and never gave her achance at a normal childhood. By coming east, rolling up hersleeves, and rehabbing this wreck of a house, Cilla intends tofind some kind of normalcy for herself.
Plunging into the project with gusto, she's almost too busyto notice her neighbor, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer but hislanky form, green eyes, and easy, unflappable humor (not tomention his delightfully ugly dog, Spock) are hard to ignore.Determined not to perpetuate the family tradition of ill-fatedromances, Cilla steels herself against Ford's quirky charm, butshe can't help indulging in a little fantasy.
But love and a peaceful life may not be in the cards for Cilla.In the attic, she has found a cache of unsigned letters suggestingthat Janet Hardy was pregnant when she died and that thefather was a local married man. Cilla can't help but wonder whatreally happened all those years ago. The mystery only deepenswith a series of intimidating acts and a frightening, violentassault. And if Cilla and Ford are unable to sort out who is targetingher and why, she may like her world-famous grandmother be cut down in the prime of her life.