Nearness of the Wild (The Lighthouse Chronicles)
Nearness of the Wild is Book Two of The Lighthouse Chronicles set in the wilds of Canada at the end of the 19th century and in a remote nursing home 100 years later. Kay Kelly is a centenarian resident of the nursing home, looking forward only to the end of her life. When Marged Brice, who claims to be over 130 years old, is placed in the nursing home, Kay’s life takes a 180-degree turn. Is this a chance meeting, or has a ghost child named Perdita somehow brought them together? There is a connection between these two elderly ladies, but what is it, and what resolution in life will it bring to them both? Marged’s story, which she recounts to Kay in the form of a diary, is the tale of two lovers between whom Marged must choose. But this novel is more than just a romance set in Victorian Canada. It is a murder mystery that unfolds in a setting Jane Austen would appreciate. Is painter George Stewart the man Marged was meant to marry? Or Doctor Andrew Reid?
Author Scharper has an eye for life in the wilds of Canada along the untamed shores of the Great Lakes. She captures the way in which women were treated as second class citizens by the men of the age. And she depicts the terrible way in which the First People of Canada were abused, jailed for crimes uncommitted, their children kidnapped and oftentimes sent to their deaths in boarding schools. Marged Brice, like the wilderness she loves, may bend but will not break. But what love will she choose? And what relevance is her tale to Kay?
