The Eastern Shore of Maryland, 1857

Naomi Banks, mistress of Hickory Hill, is a pillar of society, respected by all, envied by many. But she has a secret, never revealed. She killed her first husband, twenty-five years before. And when a ghost from her past invades the present, her entire existence is threatened, forcing a battle she never expected to fight.

Set on a large plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore, The Secrets of Hickory Hill, features a complex cast of characters: Naomi's daughter Annabelle and the two men who court her-shipbuilder Adrian Reed and politician Artemis Wentworth, the slaves of Hickory Hill-Phoebe, Coffey Green, and Billy Giles-Amish families who shelter runaways-Jacob Yoder and Samuel Zook, and the lawmen who chase them, Sheriff Dodd and slavecatcher Amos Quigg. And then there's Zeb Payne, the man who knows Naomi's secret.

The Secrets of Hickory Hill is a sprawling epic of the Antebellum South, laced with murder, intrigue, deceit, and disaster.