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Heart of St. Mary’s County #3
The Cedar Point Affair
Past and present merge in Christine Trent’s latest installment of The Heart of St Mary’s County.
Diane Alvey is a public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Her latest project is creating a History Hall to document the air station’s 1940s origins. What she never expected to find was a hidden room – or to uncover a secret stash of papers and ephemera, which includes Frances Parker’s World War II diary.
Frances Parker is a brand-new member of the U.S. Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. Along with dozens of other women, she is attempting to navigate her way through life during dangerous and uncertain times.
It is August 1943, and war has come to St. Mary’s County. The newly built air station is home to aircraft and ordnance testing, as well as a growing population of workers coming together to defeat a common enemy.
It is also home to murder.
When someone close to Frances is found dead, everyone around her is convinced that it is an accident…or so they say. But Frances is suspicious of the people who want to quickly sweep the death away. What are they trying to hide?
As Frances attempts to uncover who committed such a violent deed, her life is threatened and a dire warning issued.
Intrigued by Frances’s riveting story, Diane sets about trying to learn why someone may have been murdered during the early days of the naval base’s construction – and who was responsible for it.
When Diane unveils the shocking truth, she learns that she’s not the only one who knows what happened all those years ago…and someone will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from getting out.
Mystery and intrigue at its finest! 5-star read!!
Diane Alvey is a public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Her latest project is creating a History Hall to document the air station’s 1940s origins. What she never expected to find was a hidden room – or to uncover a secret stash of papers and ephemera, which includes Frances Parker’s World War II diary.
Frances Parker is a brand-new member of the U.S. Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. Along with dozens of other women, she is attempting to navigate her way through life during dangerous and uncertain times.
It is August 1943, and war has come to St. Mary’s County. The newly built air station is home to aircraft and ordnance testing, as well as a growing population of workers coming together to defeat a common enemy.
It is also home to murder.
When someone close to Frances is found dead, everyone around her is convinced that it is an accident…or so they say. But Frances is suspicious of the people who want to quickly sweep the death away. What are they trying to hide?
As Frances attempts to uncover who committed such a violent deed, her life is threatened and a dire warning issued.
Intrigued by Frances’s riveting story, Diane sets about trying to learn why someone may have been murdered during the early days of the naval base’s construction – and who was responsible for it.
When Diane unveils the shocking truth, she learns that she’s not the only one who knows what happened all those years ago…and someone will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from getting out.
Mystery and intrigue at its finest! 5-star read!!
452 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 22, 2025
About the author
Christine Trent
23 books338 followersChristine Trent is the author of the Heart of St. Mary's County series set in her beloved Maryland hometown. Book 3, THE CEDAR POINT AFFAIR, releases in July 2025 and Book 4, THE MADNESS OF MOLL DYER, will release in February 2026.
She is also the author of the ROYAL TRADES series about women in unusual professions, including THE QUEEN'S DOLLMAKER (a dollmaker to Marie Antoinette), A ROYAL LIKENESS (an apprentice to the great waxworker, Madame Tussaud), and BY THE KING'S DESIGN (a cloth merchant to the Prince Regent). These books were re-released in 2023.
Christine is best known for her LADY OF ASHES series featuring Violet Harper, a Victorian undertaker with a passion for her macabre work. Christine's latest entry in this historical mystery series is THE DEADLY HOURS, an anthology written with Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, and Anna Lee Huber, which follows the travels of a cursed pocket watch through time.
Can't get enough historical mystery? Christine has also written two novels (NO CURE FOR THE DEAD and A MURDEROUS MALADY) featuring Florence Nightingale as an intrepid sleuth.
Learn more about Christine at www.christinetrent.com.
She is also the author of the ROYAL TRADES series about women in unusual professions, including THE QUEEN'S DOLLMAKER (a dollmaker to Marie Antoinette), A ROYAL LIKENESS (an apprentice to the great waxworker, Madame Tussaud), and BY THE KING'S DESIGN (a cloth merchant to the Prince Regent). These books were re-released in 2023.
Christine is best known for her LADY OF ASHES series featuring Violet Harper, a Victorian undertaker with a passion for her macabre work. Christine's latest entry in this historical mystery series is THE DEADLY HOURS, an anthology written with Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, and Anna Lee Huber, which follows the travels of a cursed pocket watch through time.
Can't get enough historical mystery? Christine has also written two novels (NO CURE FOR THE DEAD and A MURDEROUS MALADY) featuring Florence Nightingale as an intrepid sleuth.
Learn more about Christine at www.christinetrent.com.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 30, 2025
Loved reading about historical facts I didn’t know about Pax River NAS, Solomons Island , and surrounding area of St. Mary’s County. Her best book yet in this series.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review