Böcker av Katherine L. Holmes

Unbeknown to Dawn, her grandfather has shot an old swan out of mercy. In their coastal Alaskan town, her father buys the swan pelt, preventing her Uncle Alex, a fur trader, from selling it for export. Dawn's father surprises her part-Aleut mother with a hat she helped to make and also with an idea to catch poachers. Shooting swans has become illegal but Alaska is a territory and Prohibition occupies the Sheriff. Dawn and her mother become involved with suspicious inquiries about the swan bonnet besides its haunting effect. Because Dawn's grandparents see the swans first, Dawn agrees to secretly watch the migration with the deputy sheriff's son. But after she and her mother encounter women from a ship and find out about a hunting party, they ride to the inlet. There are townspeople roving the shore too but who is the vigilante and who is the poacher?

Maureen doesn't plan to repeat the mistakes of her divorced parents. In the 1960's, she and her siblings seek passage from their trauma and a town that thrives on the poultry industry. Maureen pursues photography as a longterm commitment. But in her personal life, she enjoys romance and explores relationships until she ponders real reasons for avoiding marriage. Eventually this leads to a depression that she feels her career can conquer. When a man she would readily date hires her at a magazine and with work that revives her, her future is imperiled. This subtly psychological novel covers thirty years during a shift in society's approach to relationships. With Minnesota settings, the book's comic relief reflects that resource in Maureen.