by Wendy Webb
Sally did not have children, so she did not understand the fury of a grieving father. She could simply not foresee the blinding, vengeful rage that she had elicited with her actions that night. Poor Sally was so captivated looking into the eyes of the creature that she did not see the enormous wall of water moving toward her until it burst out of the fog and engulfed her, smashing the dock into pieces with its wrath.
The lake plucked Sally off her feet in its fury and twisted its tentacles around her as tight as a noose, plunging her body under the surface, forcing so much water into her lungs that they burst apart, killing her in an instant. It carried her lifeless body for miles to a faraway, desolate shore and spat her out in disgust.
To this day, on that faraway beach, where her bones had been picked clean and carried away by wolves, an aura of madness remains. Animals other than the fearless wolves stay away, sensing danger and destruction. But humans aren’t as in tune with nature as animals are. Families congregate on that beach to take a dip in the cool water on steamy summer days, armed with picnic baskets and blankets.
But something is just not right about the place. Their otherwise well-behaved children always seem to run wild on that beach with a kind of frantic energy that gives parents pause, sending a shiver down their spines even as they resolve to limit the sugary treats in their children’s lunches the next time. Friends and lovers argue, the anger seemingly coming from nowhere. Wives grow testy and annoyed with their husbands, who seem withdrawn and depressed, despite the blue sky and clear water.
And nobody lingers there too long, for fear that the madness is catching.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Readers ask me if I base my characters on real people, and usually the answer is no, not entirely. Snippets of someone’s conversation here, a description there. And that’s true with this book, too, but as I was writing Simon, I couldn’t get the voice of my darling friend Ken Anderson out of my head, as though he demanded to be written into the story. (He’d totally do that, by the way.) Simon has a whole lot of Ken in him. It was so gratifying to hear my agent and my editors, the first readers of this book, say: “Simon is so much fun! I love him!” I do, too.
Speaking of my agent and editors . . . I am profoundly lucky to have my wonderful, delightful agent, Jennifer Weltz, and her amazing team at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency representing me. Jennifer has been my invaluable sounding board, champion, lioness, and friend throughout the years. Plus she makes me laugh every single time we talk. Jennifer, I adore you.
To my stellar team at Lake Union: Danielle Marshall, Faith Black Ross, Kelli Martin, Alicia Clancy, Gabriella Dumpit, Ashley Vanicek, the amazing copyeditors (I bow to your superb attention to detail), and everyone else who works on my behalf, thank you for your faith in me, for your hard work, and for loving this story as much as I do.
To the independent booksellers who carry my books, get them into the hands of new readers, and graciously invite me into your stores to meet them, you have made my career, and I am eternally grateful to you.
And to my readers. Thank you so very, very much for coming along for the ride. Get in touch, send me an email with your thoughts, follow me on Instagram or Facebook and let me know how you liked this tale.
Finally, readers of my last book, The End of Temperance Dare, may have picked up on the fact that I set this story in the same community of Wharton, a small portside town of my own invention on Lake Superior. Wharton exists in my own imagination, and now, yours, but a real place is the inspiration for it. Bayfield, Wisconsin.
To me, Bayfield is a mystical, magical place steeped in Lake Superior legend and lore, overlooking the magnificent Apostle Island National Lakeshore, a string of twenty-one islands of indescribable beauty in my beloved harsh, powerful, and awe-inspiring inland sea.
Every summer I make sure to get to Bayfield at least once, most often for my birthday in August. For a very significant birthday, I rented out my favorite place, a Victorian inn called Le Chateau Boutin, and hosted my closest friends and family for a weekend none of us will ever forget. Le Chateau is the inspiration for Harrison’s House—if you google it, you’ll recognize it from my descriptions. It’s not similarly haunted . . . that I know of . . . and there are no dark secrets lurking in any of the corners. It’s simply wonderful and relaxing and lovely, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience Wharton for real.
About that inland sea, Lake Superior. It’s a character in this book, much more so than in any of my others. You should know a few things if you’re a newcomer to the greatest of lakes. Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, is an ancient, powerful, vengeful, and, by turns, peaceful, calming, healing body of water unlike no other on the face of this planet.
The native peoples who lived on its shores called it Gitche Gumee (a rough translation) and believed that the lake itself was a great spirit, to whom the people gave offerings and gifts before setting out on any journey by boat. They knew the lake could be protective and welcoming and also murderous and sly, and they knew the lake was fickle. Best to appease it at the outset.
The creature young Jess saw when he discovered baby Addie is a real Lake Superior legend, Michi Peshu, an underwater deity. Ancient pictographs around the lake depict him, especially on the Canadian side.
By the way, this isn’t just an ancient, old-fashioned belief. People who live on Lake Superior to this day, myself included, will tell you it really does seem to be a living thing.
DAUGHTERS OF THE LAKE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
The lore and legend of Lake Superior centers on the lake being a great spirit, Gitche Gumee. What are your thoughts on nature and the divine?
Addie exhibits pure love while Jess blunders his way through. Is he ultimately to blame for her death?
What would you come back from the dead to set right?
Do you believe love lives on after death?
Were Addie and Jess meant for each other? Did the lake choose him for her?
Did Celeste lose her mind, or was she calculated when she went to Addie’s that night in the fog?
Both Harrison and Jess are deeply flawed but, at the same time, sympathetic characters. Is ambition the reason for their downfalls? Could you live with such a flawed partner?
Who is the angry spirit in the house?
Why does the lake choose this time to allow Addie to wash up on Kate’s beach? Is it to finally right the wrong of Jess’s trial, or is it to save Kate?
Fog envelops Addie the day of her birth and the night of her death. What is the significance of this?
When Kate becomes ice cold and starts shivering, what is happening to her?
What is it about Wharton that invites otherworldly happenings?
Would you vacation at Harrison’s House if you could?
The character of Simon is based on a real-life friend of Wendy’s. Who would you put into a book, and why?
If you could ask Addie and Kate each one question, what would it be?
If you could ask Wendy one question about this book, what would it be?
DAUGHTERS OF THE LAKE AUTHOR Q&A
I wrote these discussion questions to spark conversation in book clubs—I love my loyal book club readers. Then I thought it would be fun to answer these questions myself. So here are my thoughts. But my answers are no more valid than yours. This story is open to your interpretation, too.
1. The lore and legend of Lake Superior centers on the lake being a great spirit, Gitche Gumee. What are your thoughts on nature and the divine?
I lived on Lake Superior for sixteen years, and I can tell you without a doubt that there’s something otherworldly and divine about that lake.
2. Addie exhibits pure love while Jess blunders his way through. Is he ultimately to blame for her death?
Jess’s infidelities are ultimately the cause of Addie’s death, but she doesn’t blame him, so I won’t, either.
3. What would you come back from the dead to set right?
; Any wrong involving someone I loved. My beloved wrongly accused of my murder? I’d be back here in a nanosecond.
4. Do you believe love lives on after death?
My mom recently passed after sixty-three years of marriage to my dad. He still talks to her every day. So, yes. I believe it. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
5. Were Addie and Jess meant for each other? Did the lake choose him for her?
Yes, the lake chose Jess for Addie the day she was born.
6. Did Celeste lose her mind, or was she calculated when she went to Addie’s that night in the fog?
I was imagining she lost her mind and couldn’t accept the death of her baby.
7. Both Harrison and Jess are deeply flawed but, at the same time, sympathetic characters. Is ambition the reason for their downfalls? Could you live with such a flawed partner?
To a certain extent, looking back on it, ambition is a big contributor, but it’s not the only reason. I think there is an inflated sense of pride and entitlement that both men exhibit, too. Harrison covers up what he believes is Celeste’s crime and allows his good friend Jess to take the fall for it. He also raises Jess and Addie’s daughter as his own. Had Jess not been killed at the courthouse, Harrison would have let him believe his own child had died. But on the other hand, he was an excellent father to Hadley, and he was kind to and, in his own way, in love with Addie. Jess, too, was guilty of an affair even though he loved Addie with his whole heart and soul. Entitlement? Lack of character? Both?
Could I live with a flawed partner? I think we all do, to a certain extent. We’re human, every last one of us. We all are guilty of doing foolish things. To me, that’s what love is there for, to allow us to look beyond the mistakes and missteps our partners make, to forgive. That’s what I believe “to err is human, to forgive divine” means.
8. Who is the angry spirit in the house?
When I was writing it, until I got about halfway through, I was thinking it was Celeste’s mother, the angry woman in the portrait. But closer to the ending, I thought, no. It’s Celeste herself.
9. Why does the lake choose this time to allow Addie to wash up on Kate’s beach? Is it to finally right the wrong of Jess’s trial, or is it to save Kate?
Both.
10. Fog envelops Addie the day of her birth and the night of her death. What is the significance of this?
I think fog is creepy, first of all, but to me it’s the lake rising up.
11. When Kate becomes ice cold and starts shivering, what is happening to her?
She is experiencing what Addie experienced during the last moments of her life.
12. What is it about Wharton that invites otherworldly happenings?
To me, the veil between this world and the next is very thin in Wharton. It allows both good and evil to come and go.
13. Would you vacation at Harrison’s House if you could?
Absolutely. The house is based on a real place, Le Chateau Boutin in Bayfield, Wisconsin. I go there every year.
14. The character of Simon is based on a real-life friend of Wendy’s. Who would you put into a book, and why?
I’ve named characters after real people in my life. I put my dogs in my books, too.
15. If you could ask Addie and Kate each one question, what would it be?
For Addie: What is it like on the other side?
For Kate: Is Nick the great love of your life?
16. If you could ask Wendy one question about this book, what would it be?
I’ll leave this one to you. Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @wendywebbauthor, and ask away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2010 Steve Burmeister
Wendy Webb knew from the minute she read A Wrinkle in Time at age eleven that she was destined to be a writer. After two decades as a journalist, writing for varied publications including USA Today, the Huffington Post, the Star Tribune, Midwest Living, and others, Wendy wrote her first novel, The Tale of Halcyon Crane. When it won the 2011 Minnesota Book Award for genre fiction, she started writing fiction full-time. Her second and third novels, The Fate of Mercy Alban and The Vanishing, established her as a leading suspense novelist, whom reviewers are calling the Queen of the Northern Gothic. She lives in Minneapolis and is at work on her next novel. Visit her online at www.wendykwebb.com and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as wendywebbauthor.