Secrets of the Summer House

Bostonians George Wickersham IV and Nikki Wickersham, an investment broker and an up-and-coming artist respectively, have been married for a year. Despite George being a native New Englander, he has shared little of his family history with her, especially as he and his father are estranged, although not out of George not loving his father. Nikki will get a glimpse into George's past when they receive news that George's father has passed away, the death ruled accidental at the long time family home on Wickersham Island off the coast of Maine. George believes that the death was not accidental, that he was murdered, possibly by Peter Hughes, the young man George's father hired to be the custodian of the house, while the authorities believe the only other possible explanation being that he committed suicide. George has no intention to keep the house as it has bad connotations for him. Nikki will learn that there have long been stories that the house is both haunted and is cursed, the curse specifically that the Wickersham men are destined to die there if they stay there. Regardless, Nikki finds artistic inspiration on the island, where she wants to stay for a while to paint, but also renovate the house to turn into an artists' retreat. George, who has to go to work in Boston during the week, can travel back and forth on the weekends, while Nikki's best friend, writer Margie Mancuso, can stay with Nikki on the island. The longer Nikki stays on the island, especially when she is on her own, the more she discovers about the house and about the Wickersham family, the combination of which leads her to believe that there is some validity both to the house being haunted and about the Wickersham family curse. She is determined to break the curse for her and George's sake, she perhaps unaware at the risk to her and George's life.