Coastal contemporary fiction✦An unexpected romance✦A family story worth finding
The story
A quiet getaway. An unexpected second act.
Leland Reed spent eleven years solving murders on TV. Now the studio wants him back, his agent won’t stop calling, and he’d like a few weeks away from other people’s plans for him.
So he grows a beard, puts on glasses, and rents a cottage in Belleweather Beach, the little Gulf Coast town where his late mother spent a summer she rarely mentioned. He brings an old photograph, three letters, and a note she never finished.
Kate Madison, who runs the café on the square, knows exactly who he is and isn’t telling. Kate’s mother knew his mother that summer. And the man who rents him a beach chair remembers a young woman Leland never knew.
The longer Leland stays, the harder it gets to picture leaving Kate. But Hollywood still has something he wants, and Kate has a life she won’t walk away from.
One life he knows by heart. Another he never expected to find.
Hollywood HillsLos Angeles, California
Belleweather BeachFlorida’s Gulf Coast · A fictional town
A life in the spotlight.
Eleven seasons, familiar faces, and a role everyone wants him to play again. Leland still loves the work. He’s less sure about the part he’s been handed next.
A place to stay awhile.
Sugar-white beaches, white houses with deep porches, and a square where the morning starts with coffee. Along Florida’s Panhandle, Belleweather has a way of making a visitor feel at home.
Among his mother’s things, an unfinished note
“There is something about that summer I should have told you.”
An old photograph gives him somewhere to begin.
The people
In a small town, you rarely stay a stranger.
A café owner who sees past the famous face. A man who remembers his mother. An agent with a plane ticket and opinions of her own.
Leland came looking for a piece of his past. These are the people who complicate his future.
01
The summer guest
Leland Reed
Recognizable almost everywhere. Twice divorced. Trying to work out what he wants when no one else is deciding for him.
02
The woman behind the counter
Kate Madison
She has a café to run and a life she’s built for herself. A famous customer is interesting. A man who really listens is something else.
03
The man by the water
Tom
He can find you a good beach chair and make you a gin and tonic. Ask about Caroline, and the conversation becomes a little harder.
04
The agent who won’t give up
Nina Rosenthal
Precise, protective, and perfectly at home in Los Angeles. Florida’s humidity is another matter. She’d also appreciate a returned call.
Begin the book
Your chair by the water is waiting.
Start at the airport, where Leland’s suitcase is on its way and Nina has already left three messages.
“By the time Leland’s suitcase reached the carousel, Nina had left three messages about an offer he had already declined.”
From Chapter One
Coming soon in paperback
Hollywood Can Wait
A Belleweather Beach Novel · Crawley Finn
A warm coastal novel about family, an unexpected romance, and making room for a life you didn’t plan.
