Emma here. Most people think living on Cape Cod sounds dreamy, but let me tell you what my mornings actually look like.
5 a.m. alarm. Grief insomnia means I’m awake anyway. Might as well torture myself productively.
I meet the Tragic Wives at Harbor Beach for our cold-water swimming ritual. Yes, we’re called the Tragic Wives—everyone’s got a sob story. Mine’s a double feature: my sister disappeared in the ocean last summer, and my ex cheated with our florist. Apparently my life is a Lifetime movie.
The water’s brutal but my therapist swears by it. She charges enough that she must know something, right?
After the swim, coffee with Miguel—if he’s not fielding calls from his globe-trotting husband. Miguel runs a business, SNAIL GIRL ERA, which is hilarious since he talks at triple speed and owns more beauty products than a Sephora.
Then home to negotiate with my seventeen-year-old niece, Natalie. Most days she communicates entirely through eye rolls and heavy sighs. I’m winging this guardian thing.
Evenings are when everything hits—the sister I couldn’t save, the teenager I’m somehow supposed to guide through grief when I’m drowning in my own.
So that’s my day. Rebuilding life from the wreckage, one freezing plunge at a time.
THE SWIMMING GROUP
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release: April 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Amazon | Barnes and Noble
My name is Emma Brennan, and I never thought I’d find myself in this position — standing on a Cape Cod beach at sunrise, wondering which of my friends is a killer.
I came to the idyllic seaside town of Provincetown, to raise my young niece and figure out what to do next with my life. Eleven months ago my sister vanished off the coast of Ocracoke Island. No body, no answers. Just a teenage daughter left behind — and me. At the same time, the man I thought I was going to marry cheated on me with a cute young florist.
I joined the Tragic Wives’ Group — a tight-knit, cold-water swimming group with enough personal drama to fill a bestseller. And one of us has put it in a manuscript, spilling all our secrets.
Then she disappears . . . leaving just a pile of clothes on the sand. She’s the second person I’ve lost in twelve months.
About the author
Dr. Bella Ellwood-Clayton writes twisty fiction about the secrets we hide from those closest to us. Her latest novel The Swimming Group (Joffe Books 2025) follows her debut Weekend Friends (Post Hill Press 2023), which was hailed as “unputdownable” by bestselling author Nicola Moriarty. Her newest novel, The Cherry Wives, is slated for publication in early 2026.
Bella serves as Head Editorial at NAC Liberty Agency and runs Dr. Bella Editorial. She holds a BA from Concordia University in Montréal and a PhD from the University of Melbourne.
Married to an Aussie, she lives in Melbourne with her two screen-obsessed teenagers and a mini Maltese convinced he’s a pit bull. When not writing, you can find Bella coaxing her offspring to go outside, and randomly blurting out, “Oh, that’s a good story idea.”
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