Dark Secrets

About the Book

     What would you do if you were a seventeen year old boy, on the eve of graduation, when you’re told that wealthy ‘uncle’ who placed you in boarding schools since the age of five is actually your father?  Finding out that you’re a bastard is something so shameful that you can’t even tell your best friend and room mate.  And worst of all, that your father now wants to get to know you as an adult.
     This is the turmoil that Alexander Chase Kingsley must deal with.  On arriving in Fredericksburg, Virginia, hoping to help his mother, whom he’s only seen a handful of times with her saloon business, he finds out that she actually runs a whorehouse.  And there’s still the nagging problem of his father.  He inherits the brothel, but closes it, to open a grand hotel, and enlisting his best friend Jem to help manage it.  
     He finds a woman…a preening peacock….that coldly and calculatingly snares Alex into marriage.  In time he finds out that she used to be a river boat harlot, she’s pregnant with his child.  What to do?  Kick her out, pregnancy and all?  No, Alex wants a child to make up for the unconventional childhood that he himself had endured.  So he comes up with a plan…
     After his divorce, Alex is very bitter and cold, even taking to carrying a side arm, which later saves his son, Joshua, who is his entire life and the only person besides Jem that keeps him sane, not realizing that the love he needs is right under his nose. 
     Dark Secrets is filled with every emotion within the realm of human life.  It has loyalty, love, confrontation and many cliff-hangers.  Thank you for reading, and I always welcome feedback.

About the Author

     My name is Vicki Kidwell, and I am the mother of four girls, and the grandmother of six.  I was born in Washington, DC, the oldest daughter of two VERY Southern parents, and moved to Maryland.  I grew up on Hank Williams and Southern cooking.    The era of the old South has intrigued me, and I feel myself drawn to it.  The town I placed my book in is Fredericksburg, Virginia, which became a city in 1880.  I live in neighboring Spotsylvania County, which is between Fredericksburg and Culpepper, and have the opportunity to visit the City frequently.  It is a very beautiful place, a mixture of history and modern day lives. 

I tried to use names from the post-Civil War era sparingly.  The intersection I placed Alex’s mother’s business is only half-true.  Catherine Street did not, and still does not exist.  I made up the intersection, because I didn’t want to take the chance of besmirching a memory if a home really did exist if I had used a true address, although I believe most of the people of Fredericksburg would have a sense of humor about it.  I used the names of a few of the businesses that actually existed between 1879 through 1885, because they create an idea of what Fredericksburg was like then.  Other locations I used my imagination on, as in case of the Post Office.

         My book is strictly fiction, with only a sketchy historical background.  All characters are fictitious and are not meant to resemble any person.  Dark Secrets is meant to entertain, and I certainly hope it achieves that goal.  A synopsis is included.   Thank you for your time.

                                                                                                            Sincerely,                                                                                                        

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