Shadows on the Boardwalk

When investigative author Clara Mercer inherits her grandmother's 1920s craftsman in Ventnor, she expects a quiet place to finish a book. Instead she finds Evelyn Mercer's locked 1930s diaries hidden in a cedar chest, a vintage casino token left on the porch rail, and the unmistakable sense that someone else has already been inside the house.The diaries are explicit. They record backstage trysts, midnight pursuits, and sex used as both leverage and escape in the last season before Evelyn vanished from the Steel Pier in 1936. As Clara reads, objects move. Postcards appear quoting pages she has not yet reached. The past is not staying in the past.She hires Julian Vance, a former Atlantic City detective whose own grandfather worked the original disappearance before the case was shut. Together they follow diary dates, storm drains under the Boardwalk, and a partial plate that leads to a local antique dealer. The closer they get to a rumored ledger of diamonds and bonds, the more dangerous the present becomes and the harder it is to keep their hands off each other.What begins as a cold-case research job turns into a pursuit through speakeasy cellars, fogged archive rooms, and rising tides. Someone is replaying Evelyn's final weeks. Someone wants what was hidden in the cottage. And every clue they uncover pulls Clara and Julian deeper into each other as well as into the dark.A dual-timeline erotic suspense of secrets, obsession, and the kind of hunger that does not wait for safety. For readers who want their mysteries explicit and their heat tied to the stakes.Content note: explicit sexual content involving consenting adults.