The Middle Daughter

IN THIS GRIPPING STANDALONE NOVEL ,A STAR MANHATTAN CHEF MUST UNCOVER HER FAMILIES PAST ,IN ORDER TO SAVE THEIR LIVES.

In a tale perfect for fans of Yellowstone, the legendary New York Times bestselling author brings America's frontier to vivid life in a saga of love, hope and endurance in 1919 Montana, as the end of the Great War, the looming start of Prohibition, and reignited rivalries put a small town on the brink of a seismic shift. Battle-scarred and emotionally ravaged by the loss of his wife and children to Spanish flu, former US Army Major Logan Hunter heads to Blue Moon to salvage whatever peace he can near the only family he has left. Not only does the Calder clan embrace him, but patriarch Webb Calder helps Logan secure a prime piece of ranching property. Yet settling into his new home is fraught with challenges, especially since Logan's land borders the rival Dollarhide spread, stoking the battle between the families anew and pitting Logan against an adversary who stirs him like no other . . . From her first encounter with Logan Hunter, Dr. Kristin Dollarhide feels an instant connection to the sorrow in his beautiful eyes. As a former military MD, Kristin is no stranger to the devastating effects the war has left on hearts and minds--including her own. Despite her instinct to steer clear, Kristin is powerfully drawn to the handsome widower. Until the raging conflict takes a tragic turn, threatening all hope for their future . . .

From the prize-winning fiction writer Richard Bausch ("A master of the novel as well as the story . . . Effortlessly engaging" --Sven Birkerts, The New York Times), a sharp, affecting, masterly new novel about a close-knit theater community in Memphis and one turbulent, transformative production of King Lear. As renovations begin at the Shakespeare Theater of Memphis, life for the core members of the company seems to be falling into disarray. Their trusted director has just retired, and theater manager Thaddeus Deerforth--staring down forty and sensing a rift growing slowly between himself and his wife, Gina--dreads the arrival of an imperious, inscrutable visiting director. Claudette, struggling to make ends meet as an actor and destabilized by family troubles, is getting frequent calls from her ex-boyfriend--and also the narcissistic, lecherous television actor who has been recruited to play King Lear in their fall production. Also invited to the cast is Malcolm Ruark, a disgraced TV anchor muddling through the fallout of a scandal involving his underaged niece--and suddenly in an even more precarious situation when the same niece, now eighteen, is cast to play Cordelia. As tensions onstage and off build toward a breaking point, the bonds among the intimately drawn characters are put to extraordinary tests--and the fate of the theater itself may even be on the line. Deftly weaving together the points of view of Thaddeus, Claudette, and Malcolm, and utterly original in its incorporation of Shakespeare's timeless drama, Playhouse is an unforgettable story of men and women, human frailty, art, and redemption--a work of inimitable imaginative prowess by one of our most renowned storytellers.