Before the Whispers

When Evie Simmons trades her corporate career for a Victorian fixer-upper in Annapolis, she's looking for a quieter life - strong coffee, opinionated dogs, and the slow art of building something that matters. What she finds is a locked cabinet that won't open, a draft of cold air rising from beneath the floorboards, and a story her new home has been waiting to tell.

In Annapolis, the past is never quite past. Three sisters once built something quietly extraordinary inside the walls of Three Sisters - a refuge, a community, and a love story shaped by the times they lived in. With the help of a sharp-tongued event planner, a theatrical bookseller, and a Naval Academy historian with kind eyes, Evie begins to uncover what her house has been holding back. Some stories don't end. They simply wait for the right person to find them.

But spring in Annapolis carries more than blooming gardens and harbor light. As Evie settles into the rhythm of her new life, the present begins to whisper too - and not every story is ready to be put to rest.

Before the Whispers is the prequel novella to the Annapolis Wharfs & Whispers cozy mystery series, set against the backdrop of a real Annapolis steeped in Chesapeake history. The series continues in Shadows on the Water (Fall 2026).

Coastal mysteries. Second acts. Women who refuse to fade quietly.