Postcards from the Lake

Forty years ago, Laurel Mayhew vanished from Cedar Lake. Now her postcards have finally arrived.

When a bundle of vintage postcards turns up at the Cedar Springs post office, postmaster Tessa Quill expects little more than an interesting donation for the local historical collection.

Then she notices the postmarks.

The cards were mailed in the summer of 1984, just before seventeen-year-old Laurel Mayhew disappeared from Cedar Lake. Each postcard is addressed to someone different. Each points toward an old town secret. And every one ends with the same chilling plea:

Tell them I didn’t run away.

With Cedar Springs preparing to revive its beloved lake festival, Laurel’s messages stir up memories some of the town’s most respected residents would rather keep buried. A missing scholarship fund, the long-gone Blue Heron Lodge, a suspicious land deal, and another disappearance all trace back to one disastrous Labor Day weekend.

When a young festival volunteer vanishes after uncovering an old notebook, Tessa realizes Laurel’s postcards aren’t simply forgotten mail.

They’re clues.

With historian June Whitlock digging through altered records, Eula Mae supplying equal measures of cake and common sense, Sheriff Bartlett trying to keep everyone out of trouble, and Archibald supervising from the safest possible distance, Tessa follows a trail of postmarks and long-held lies toward the truth Cedar Springs buried forty years ago.

Because some messages arrive late.

And some secrets are finally ready to be delivered.