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Waxwood #1
The Specter
When Vivian’s grandmother dies, she leaves behind a trail of family secrets and half-truths.
San Francisco, 1892: Vivian Alderdice has just made her debut in Nob Hill society. But she’s not your typical Gilded Age heiress. She’d rather read books and take long walks than indulge in flirtations or learn the Hesitation Waltz.
In the midst of the endless parties and social events of her debutante life, her grandmother Penelope dies. Vivian replaces her taffeta and silk ballgowns for mourning clothes, putting husband-hunting on hold. The future Vivian thought was so clear is now clouded with uncertainty.
A woman not of the San Francisco elite shows up at the funeral, claiming to be an old friend of Penelope’s. She’s eager to tell Vivian about the woman she knew: Not Penelope Alderdice, the shipping tycoon’s wife and Nob Hill socialite, but Grace Carlyle, a spunky artist in search of adventure. Now it’s not only the future that’s cloudy but the past as well.
Is the intruder a crank? Is she confused? Or is she telling the truth?
Vivian won't rest and neither will the specter of Penelope Alderdice until she finds out. Her journey takes her into the life of the woman she thought she knew, uncovering family truths the Alderdices have kept hidden for over forty years.
Will Vivian’s future be revealed in her grandmother’s past?
Follow Vivian’s path to truth and self-discovery in the first book of this family saga set during one of America’s most turbulent eras.
Get The Specter today and experience the life of a spirited Gilded Age belle who won't let go of a family ghost.
~~~
THE WAXWOOD SERIES
False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)
Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)
Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)
San Francisco, 1892: Vivian Alderdice has just made her debut in Nob Hill society. But she’s not your typical Gilded Age heiress. She’d rather read books and take long walks than indulge in flirtations or learn the Hesitation Waltz.
In the midst of the endless parties and social events of her debutante life, her grandmother Penelope dies. Vivian replaces her taffeta and silk ballgowns for mourning clothes, putting husband-hunting on hold. The future Vivian thought was so clear is now clouded with uncertainty.
A woman not of the San Francisco elite shows up at the funeral, claiming to be an old friend of Penelope’s. She’s eager to tell Vivian about the woman she knew: Not Penelope Alderdice, the shipping tycoon’s wife and Nob Hill socialite, but Grace Carlyle, a spunky artist in search of adventure. Now it’s not only the future that’s cloudy but the past as well.
Is the intruder a crank? Is she confused? Or is she telling the truth?
Vivian won't rest and neither will the specter of Penelope Alderdice until she finds out. Her journey takes her into the life of the woman she thought she knew, uncovering family truths the Alderdices have kept hidden for over forty years.
Will Vivian’s future be revealed in her grandmother’s past?
Follow Vivian’s path to truth and self-discovery in the first book of this family saga set during one of America’s most turbulent eras.
Get The Specter today and experience the life of a spirited Gilded Age belle who won't let go of a family ghost.
~~~
THE WAXWOOD SERIES
False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)
Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)
Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2021
97 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Tam May
24 books696 followersWriting has been Tam’s voice since the age of fourteen. She writes stories set in the past featuring sassy but sensitive women characters. Readers share the experience of women struggling to carve out an identity for themselves during eras when their options were limited. Her stories are set mostly around the Bay Area because she adores sourdough bread, Ghirardelli chocolate, and San Francisco history.
Tam is the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries, which takes place in the early 20th century and features suffragist and epistolary expert Adele Gossling, whose talent for solving crimes doesn’t sit well with her small town’s conventional ideas about women. Tam also has a new series, the Grave Sisters Mysteries, about three sisters who own a funeral home and help the county D.A. solve crimes in a 1920s small California town.
In addition, Tam writes historical fiction about women breaking loose from the social expectations of their time. She has a 4-book series set in the 1890s, the Waxwood Series, and a post-World War II short story collection, *Lessons From My Mother’s Life*.
Although Tam left her heart in San Francisco, she lives in the Midwest because it’s cheaper. When she’s not writing, she’s devouring everything classic (books, films, art, music), concocting yummy plant-based dishes, and exploring her riverside town.
Tam is the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries, which takes place in the early 20th century and features suffragist and epistolary expert Adele Gossling, whose talent for solving crimes doesn’t sit well with her small town’s conventional ideas about women. Tam also has a new series, the Grave Sisters Mysteries, about three sisters who own a funeral home and help the county D.A. solve crimes in a 1920s small California town.
In addition, Tam writes historical fiction about women breaking loose from the social expectations of their time. She has a 4-book series set in the 1890s, the Waxwood Series, and a post-World War II short story collection, *Lessons From My Mother’s Life*.
Although Tam left her heart in San Francisco, she lives in the Midwest because it’s cheaper. When she’s not writing, she’s devouring everything classic (books, films, art, music), concocting yummy plant-based dishes, and exploring her riverside town.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 29, 2019
As someone who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I nearly laughed out loud at the first sentence in this book--and not in a good way! The author states that San Francisco hadn't seen as damp a day like as was happening since the Civil War. As the novel takes place in the early 1890s, that would mean that San Francisco hadn't seen such a damp day in nearly thirty years! Having been in San Francisco in all seasons, I can say that it can be very damp there quite often! These would be hard to quantify, and there certainly wouldn't be thirty years in between damp days.
Once I got beyond that, I found parts of this book to show an interesting glimpse of Northern California in the Gilded Age as well as harkening back to the early days of the city and state around the time of California's statehood. I find myself wondering at the accuracy of the history, especially the part referring to the 1850s, when San Francisco was still kind of a rough western city. True, not as rough as the little shanty towns that sprung up around state during the gold rush, but certainly nothing like the city as we think of it now (or even as it would have been in the 1890s. The term Gilded Age was really an accurate reflection of San Francisco at that time because of the wealth that many San Franciscans had because of the former gold rush as well as the Comstock silver rush. In a tiny little detail that I found odd, the author mentioned two prominent newspapers in the city during the 1890s, one of them the Chronicle and the other the Sun. I was surprised that the Examiner wasn't mentioned, because that flagship newspaper became a part of Hearst corporation about ten years before the novel would have started--and a very young William Randolph was given it by his father five years before.
The novel is partly epistolary, with a large chunk of the second half of the book being letters that the heroine’s grandmother wrote back to her family when she stayed in an artist colony just north of the city as a young woman. These letters were fascinating, as they revealed a very different sort of existence for young women in the 1850s, but I wish they had been integrated into the greater story better. The letters were each just given their own chapter, with no commentary from the granddaughter, Vivian, who is the protagonist of the story. This made it feel like they were just stuck in there, as they weren't really anchored to the rest of the story as much as they could have been. That said, I still did find this book to be an interesting look back into two very different and fascinating times of early California history.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
Read my other reviews at https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com.
Once I got beyond that, I found parts of this book to show an interesting glimpse of Northern California in the Gilded Age as well as harkening back to the early days of the city and state around the time of California's statehood. I find myself wondering at the accuracy of the history, especially the part referring to the 1850s, when San Francisco was still kind of a rough western city. True, not as rough as the little shanty towns that sprung up around state during the gold rush, but certainly nothing like the city as we think of it now (or even as it would have been in the 1890s. The term Gilded Age was really an accurate reflection of San Francisco at that time because of the wealth that many San Franciscans had because of the former gold rush as well as the Comstock silver rush. In a tiny little detail that I found odd, the author mentioned two prominent newspapers in the city during the 1890s, one of them the Chronicle and the other the Sun. I was surprised that the Examiner wasn't mentioned, because that flagship newspaper became a part of Hearst corporation about ten years before the novel would have started--and a very young William Randolph was given it by his father five years before.
The novel is partly epistolary, with a large chunk of the second half of the book being letters that the heroine’s grandmother wrote back to her family when she stayed in an artist colony just north of the city as a young woman. These letters were fascinating, as they revealed a very different sort of existence for young women in the 1850s, but I wish they had been integrated into the greater story better. The letters were each just given their own chapter, with no commentary from the granddaughter, Vivian, who is the protagonist of the story. This made it feel like they were just stuck in there, as they weren't really anchored to the rest of the story as much as they could have been. That said, I still did find this book to be an interesting look back into two very different and fascinating times of early California history.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
Read my other reviews at https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com.
June 17, 2019
The Specter is a deeply impressionable tale of a nearly lost Bohemian culture taking place across America in the 1850s. May focuses on one such community north of San Francisco, where artists and other odd ducks could live and create in a setting of like-mindedness and peace.
May’s historical fiction picks apart the delicate façade of American gentility in upper class, well-heeled families on the wild West Coast at the end of the nineteenth century. The world is beginning to change yet again as society shifts with a burgeoning middle class. A matriarch of a shipping family passes away, and with her death come more secrets that granddaughter Vivian will do anything, even break strict mourning codes, to unravel. Bypassing her unemotional aristocratic mother, Vivian follows a mysterious old woman who insists she was Grandmother’s friend, to the summer getaway of Waxwood, where Grandmother spent an adventurous year as a Waxwood Belle. There, and in the artist’s colony of Brandywine, specters breathe.
A large portion of the novel consists of letters home, which slowly reveal some of Grandmother’s secretive life, but only if one reads between the lines. I had fun thinking up numerous solutions to the riddles, some of which were cleverly revealed, and others left tantalizingly dangled. The research and era-specific codes, dress, and references were nearly faultless to Grandmother’s mid-1850s period, and the era of Vivian, the 1890s. Told mostly through Vivian’s perspective, and as she reads the letters, the grandmother’s, readers of American family drama who enjoy riddles will find much to appreciate about this first novel in a series. Although complete with a thoughtful conclusion, another mystery is dredged up at the very end which I assume will be the focus of another book in the series.
May’s historical fiction picks apart the delicate façade of American gentility in upper class, well-heeled families on the wild West Coast at the end of the nineteenth century. The world is beginning to change yet again as society shifts with a burgeoning middle class. A matriarch of a shipping family passes away, and with her death come more secrets that granddaughter Vivian will do anything, even break strict mourning codes, to unravel. Bypassing her unemotional aristocratic mother, Vivian follows a mysterious old woman who insists she was Grandmother’s friend, to the summer getaway of Waxwood, where Grandmother spent an adventurous year as a Waxwood Belle. There, and in the artist’s colony of Brandywine, specters breathe.
A large portion of the novel consists of letters home, which slowly reveal some of Grandmother’s secretive life, but only if one reads between the lines. I had fun thinking up numerous solutions to the riddles, some of which were cleverly revealed, and others left tantalizingly dangled. The research and era-specific codes, dress, and references were nearly faultless to Grandmother’s mid-1850s period, and the era of Vivian, the 1890s. Told mostly through Vivian’s perspective, and as she reads the letters, the grandmother’s, readers of American family drama who enjoy riddles will find much to appreciate about this first novel in a series. Although complete with a thoughtful conclusion, another mystery is dredged up at the very end which I assume will be the focus of another book in the series.
September 7, 2019
TERRIFIC NOVEL!
This novel was a very enjoyable read. Part gothic fiction, part psychological drama, “The Specter” was a deeply moving & introspective book about one of San Francisco’s powerful families set in 1892. The matriarch Penelope Alderdice has just died, & her family begins the one-year mourning period required by their peers. Penelope’s grand-daughter Vivian meets a strange little woman named Bertha Ross who clains to have known Penelope in 1853, thus launching Vivian into an investigation of Penelope’s life when she was 19 years old & her name was Grace. Vivian discovers she really didn’t know her grand-mother very well.
The plight of women in the 19th century was illustrated in great detail. What a horrible life women lived! No wonder Victorian Age women went insane or committed suicide! As it is now, money didn’t bring happiness, nor did it free women from their chains. If anything, it brought more misery in the form of expectations & commitments based on that wealth. Money certainly didn’t buy women’s freedom. It didn’t help in Penelope’s case. She didn’t become an artist, nor did she marry the man she loved. Instead she married an autocratic b*****d who ordered her around & dictated her behavior.
Vivian learns her grand-mother was a deeply unhappy woman who resigned herself to a life in chains. But Vivian
does manage to banish the specter that loomed over her life.
I’m looking forward to reading Tam May’s second novel in the Waxwood Series when it’s published December 2019.
This novel was a very enjoyable read. Part gothic fiction, part psychological drama, “The Specter” was a deeply moving & introspective book about one of San Francisco’s powerful families set in 1892. The matriarch Penelope Alderdice has just died, & her family begins the one-year mourning period required by their peers. Penelope’s grand-daughter Vivian meets a strange little woman named Bertha Ross who clains to have known Penelope in 1853, thus launching Vivian into an investigation of Penelope’s life when she was 19 years old & her name was Grace. Vivian discovers she really didn’t know her grand-mother very well.
The plight of women in the 19th century was illustrated in great detail. What a horrible life women lived! No wonder Victorian Age women went insane or committed suicide! As it is now, money didn’t bring happiness, nor did it free women from their chains. If anything, it brought more misery in the form of expectations & commitments based on that wealth. Money certainly didn’t buy women’s freedom. It didn’t help in Penelope’s case. She didn’t become an artist, nor did she marry the man she loved. Instead she married an autocratic b*****d who ordered her around & dictated her behavior.
Vivian learns her grand-mother was a deeply unhappy woman who resigned herself to a life in chains. But Vivian
does manage to banish the specter that loomed over her life.
I’m looking forward to reading Tam May’s second novel in the Waxwood Series when it’s published December 2019.
July 12, 2025
Vivian is supposed to be enjoying her debutant season. The death of her grandmother and an unexpected guest at the funeral, only reinforces Vivian's feeling that she isn't a typical debutant. As she comes to know this unexpected guest and unravels her grandmother's past, the answers she finds leave only more questions. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story and couldn't wait to find out what happens next, but I was confused by the purpose of the story until I read the author's note at the end.
Tam May uses her craft to bring an insightful perspective to family trauma and how we all deal with the skeletons in our closet. The generational impact of the choices we make are artfully weaved into this story, without retraumatizing the reader. I've long known that the traumas experienced by my parents bled into my life. What I hadn't considered before was how my response to that has filtered into my daughter's life and her son's. Thank you Tam for tackling this difficult topic. I look forward to reading the next book in the series to find out what decisions Vivian's brother Jake makes.
Tam May uses her craft to bring an insightful perspective to family trauma and how we all deal with the skeletons in our closet. The generational impact of the choices we make are artfully weaved into this story, without retraumatizing the reader. I've long known that the traumas experienced by my parents bled into my life. What I hadn't considered before was how my response to that has filtered into my daughter's life and her son's. Thank you Tam for tackling this difficult topic. I look forward to reading the next book in the series to find out what decisions Vivian's brother Jake makes.
June 28, 2019
You'll be instantly transported back in time as you read this book. Even though Vivian is not the narrator, it's impossible not to step right into her shoes, living out her journey as your own. The pressures of society and family versus her own personal desires for her future war with each other as she explores her grandmother's hidden past. Scandalous secrets and turmoil await in this historical family life fiction.
July 15, 2019
Mostly told through letters, this story is a tale of secrets being revealed, of a year of freedom and adventure, and a woman who is getting to really know her grandmother.
The accuracy of the historical details is impressive, the writing poignant, and the characters compelling. A very interesting, engaging read.
The accuracy of the historical details is impressive, the writing poignant, and the characters compelling. A very interesting, engaging read.
July 16, 2019
Absolutely fabulous writing. The characters are spectacularly developed: you either want to hug them, or smack them. The tension that runs between Vivian and her mother is just absolutely delightful. There is a conflict between what one feels and is, and what one should present to Society, and that’s absolutely a fight that most of us have fought at some time.
September 21, 2019
Entertaining, enlightening and fun!
Tam brings an interesting era to life: the turn of the century (19th to 20th, that is) in an intriguing and beguiling story. Dealing with a time of profound change, the challenges of the characters mirror those of current-day life. I enjoyed every page, and stayed up too late reading more than once!
Tam brings an interesting era to life: the turn of the century (19th to 20th, that is) in an intriguing and beguiling story. Dealing with a time of profound change, the challenges of the characters mirror those of current-day life. I enjoyed every page, and stayed up too late reading more than once!
December 26, 2019
Her grandmother has died and at the funeral she will meet a lady who know about her grandmother past. Others tell her that the last I'd lying but she goes to find the truth for herself. Will she find out what happened? How will it affect her? Follow her journey
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
December 30, 2022
THE SPECTER is very sad throughout. Such stories are not my cup of tea at all. However, attesting to the author’s skill at weaving a fascinating tale, I found this book to be impossible to put down! If you enjoy uncovering family secrets and dragging skeletons out of the closet, this one is for you.
July 25, 2019
I liked this book
We never know what skeletons are hidden in our family’s closet’s until we start digging them out. It’s hard to keep the children in the dark with the story’s of our youth.
We never know what skeletons are hidden in our family’s closet’s until we start digging them out. It’s hard to keep the children in the dark with the story’s of our youth.
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April 7, 2024Interesting story
It was strange story which took a bit toget into but I did enjoy the story especially the custom for young ladies of class were held back from ever knowing what freedom was really lik,
e.
It was strange story which took a bit toget into but I did enjoy the story especially the custom for young ladies of class were held back from ever knowing what freedom was really lik,
e.
June 15, 2019
Amazing new genre for me but not my last. Could not put this down, read from cover to cover in one sitting. Author made the characters and plot work together amazingly!
June 17, 2019
An absolutely fascinating story with enough strangeness to keep you reading. Don’t miss out once it’s released.
November 27, 2019
This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs
"a good base for the series to build upon"
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs
"a good base for the series to build upon"
October 3, 2023
Didn’t care for this book. It wasn’t what i thought it would be.
May 29, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews