Flaming Tree - Hardcover

Whitney, Phyllis A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340379766 ISBN 13: 9780340379769

Publisher: Doubleday, 1986

Synopsis

In search of solitude in the wake of her son’s tragic death, recently divorced physical therapist Kelsey Stewart accepts an invitation to stay at her aunt Elaine’s seaside inn in Carmel, California. No sooner does Kelsey arrive than she becomes moved by another tragedy: On a bright sunny day, local boy Jody Hammond fell from the Point Lobos cliff into the pounding waves of the Pacific and was left with a devastating brain injury. He now stares into an empty void and hasn’t spoken a single word since the accident.

Compelled to aid in the boy’s recovery, Kelsey visits the Hammonds’ Flaming Tree ranch, where Jody’s tyrannical father, Tyler, has given up hope. Kelsey can offer that, and the effort might revive her own crushed spirit as well. But as she falls in love with the mysterious Tyler, she also begins to unravel the family’s secrets. When she begins to fear that Jody’s silence is coming from a very dark place, her mission will become one of life and death—because what’s buried in the boy’s memories could be murder.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A compassionate woman haunted by her past. A mysterious man who leads her to love. And the dangerous secret that is stronger than both of them.
Kelsey Stewart is not thinking of love or adventure when she visits her aunt at her peaceful seaside inn nestled in beautiful Carmel, California. But when she is urged to help in the recuperation of Jody Hammond, a young boy who fell from a sea cliff, she finds her troubled heart coming back to life. And soon she finds herself falling in love with Jody's father, the mysterious, handsome Tyler.

From Publishers Weekly

Although Jody Hammond and his mother Ruth have survived a terrible fall off the ocean cliffs at Carmel, Calif., Jody can't speak or recognize anyone, and his tyrannical father, Tyler, gives up hope for his recovery. In the Hammond household at La Casa de la Sombra, life has never seemed hopeful anyway, troubled as it is with dark secrets from the past. Meanwhile, Kelsey Stewart, struggling to forget the death of her own small son, has arrived in Carmel to stay with her aunt, the owner of a local inn. A therapist for brain-damaged children, Kelsey offers to help Jody, but her efforts seem blocked by mysterious forces. Visiting Flaming Tree ranch where a Hammond friend was murdered, she unravels the shocking story that has kept Jody silent. A skilled and graceful storyteller, Whitney provides a romantic backdrop for the novel in her descriptions of Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula. Paperback rights to Fawcett; Literary Guild selection. January 3
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340379766
• ISBN 13: 9780340379769
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278