Golden Girl
Vivian Howe, author of thirteen beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. In the Beyond, she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three 'nudges' to change the outcome of events on earth. Daughter Willa is on her third miscarriage; daughter Carson partying until all hours, and son Leo is currently 'off again' with his high-maintenance girlfriend. Vivi watches Ed Kapenash investigate her death, but her greatest worry is her final book, which contains a secret from her own youth that could be disastrous for her reputation. How should Vivi use her nudges-- or should she?
Nantucket novelist and mother of three, killed in a hit-and-run; narrates the story from the afterlife over her final summer watching her family.
Vivi's eldest daughter, pregnant and navigating a difficult pregnancy after prior miscarriages while grieving her mother.
Vivi's middle daughter, a hard-partying twentysomething whose heavy drinking and reckless choices worry her mother from the Beyond.
Vivi's son, caught in an on-again, off-again relationship with a high-maintenance girlfriend over the course of the summer.
Vivi's ex-husband, who helps hold the family together through their grief over the summer following her death.
No. Golden Girl is a standalone novel. Like several of Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket books, it shares its island setting and the recurring character of police chief Ed Kapenash with her other novels, but it has no numbered sequel or prequel.
The Beyond is the afterlife where protagonist Vivian Howe finds herself after her death. She is assigned a guide named Martha, who grants her a summer-long window to watch over her family on Nantucket and three "nudges" she can use to influence events on earth.
Nantucket police chief Ed Kapenash investigates the hit-and-run that killed Vivi over the course of the summer, with suspicion falling on Cruz DeSantis, a young local and childhood friend of Vivi's son Leo.