When Ella thought of her father’s best friends, she remembered piggyback rides, snowball fights and hot cocoa by the fire on frigid Adirondack nights at the logging camp. She was only three when her father died while breaking a jam on the river and she had no real memories of him. Her mother, a camp cook, rarely spoke of him and rarely even spoke to Ella. Ella’s memories came from the three lumberjacks who took her into their arms and shared stories of his bravery and adventures.

These men loved her, but did they kill for her?

“Ella. Snap out of it.” Lydia pulled smoke from a long, thin cigarette deep into her lungs and blew it into the air above them. She gave Ella a gentle shove and laughed, roughly and loudly. “This a party, remember? No moping. No thinking about the trial. We’re here to have fun. You look great in that dress. So much nicer than that dreadful mummy-like outfit you were going to wear.”

Lydia, who lived in the boarding house with Ella, wore a loose, sleeveless black dress that stopped just before her knees. Fringed with beads, it was covered in sequins that seemed to move with her body, giving her an unusual sense of grace. Lydia was a plain woman by day, but she turned heads in this dress. Ella had agreed to shed her usual head-to-toe outfit, but she wasn’t ready for this new 1920s style that Lydia and others at the party wore. She wasn’t she’d ever be ready for that.

Ella had declined when Lydia first invited her to the party, held at the home of a bootlegger who ran rum across the nearby Canadian border. What if the women of the church saw her? What would they think? But then Lydia reminded her that she no longer belonged to them. Her wealthy husband had kicked her out of the house once he learned about her past and those women had shunned her as well. She was free.

Free. That was a new way of looking at Ella’s situation and she liked it. She was free of a man who never loved her. She was free of a past that had haunted her since childhood. She was free of the pressures and expectations that came with wealth. So, she agreed.

But, as she watched Lydia swing her hips and arms on the makeshift dance floor, Ella remembered her freedom came at a price. Those three men had families of their own and now, they faced the death penalty. They were arrested a few weeks ago after a former lumberjack claimed Henry Roth’s death 19 years ago was no accident. The lumberjack said they killed Roth because he’d hurt Ella as a child and had gotten away with it, thanks to corrupt sheriff.

Did they kill him? And, if they did, was it really wrong? Ella needed air. She grabbed her coat and slipped into the cold, dark Adirondack night, alone.

SPRING MELT
Genre: Historical Suspense (1920s)
Release: March 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org

As a doctor’s wife in a thriving Adirondack village in the 1920s, Ella Devine seems to have an ideal life. Her husband grew rich catering to New York City socialites who wanted to hide their TB diagnoses from their friends. Their marriage is devoid of emotion, but so is she, having learned long ago to quietly accept whatever life offers. But all that changes when three men are charged with a nineteen-year-old murder, and the long-buried crime that shaped Ella’s childhood is exposed.

Spring Melt draws on the rich and fascinating history of the Adirondacks, where hikers who see only low hills and lush vegetation fail to perceive the hidden dangers and lose their lives by stepping two feet off the trail. Since the late 1800s, the wilderness that is the Adirondacks has been both a frontier to be conquered only by the hardiest of humans and a playland for the wealthy. When these two worlds collide, the resulting explosion can be fatal.

About the author
A former crime reporter, Lori Duffy Foster was born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, where a piece of her heart remains and her latest novel, SPRING MELT, is set. SPRING MELT, her first historical-suspense novel, releases March 10. Her previous novels include NEVER LET GO, a thriller, and the Lisa Jamison Mystery Series. Her books have been nominees or finalists for Agatha, Silver Falchion and Shamus awards. Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers, The Finger Lakes Authors & Readers Experience and Pennwriters. After several moves about the country with her family, Lori now lives and writes in the hills of Northern Pennsylvania. Look out for NO STRANGER HERE, a thriller, releasing from Speaking Volumes in 2027.