Sarah Champlin is a painter in 1924 Paris, about to have her first exhibition.  But her plans are put on hold when she receives a telegram that her older sister, Ada, has been found dead in Carmel, California.  Sarah drops everything and travels to the town which is known as a gathering place for artists.

The inquest declared Ada's death a suicide but Sarah doesn't believe that.  Ada was a force and she was about to have her greatest artistic triumph ever.  Ada's personal life was also blooming and Sarah doesn't believe she would leave it all behind.  But if it wasn't suicide then it must be murder.  Who would want to kill Ada?

Unfortunately, there are more than one suspect.  There is her agent, whom Ada had recently fired.  She had also fired her assistant, a young painter who has secrets of her own.  There was a handsome rich suitor who was a sailor as well as an actor who was another suitor.  Sarah encounters secrets and motives everywhere she looks and doesn't know who to trust.  Can she discover the truth and give Ada back her reputation?

Although I have obviously heard of Carmel, I never knew it's history as a place where women artists gathered to make their art.  The reader will learn about many topics in this novel.  There is the history of women artists, the abalone divers of Japanese heritage, the discrimination those Japanese people encountered as well as the effects of Prohibition and the constraints women encountered in everyday life.  The author's own aunt was Ada Belle Champlin who served as the inspiration for this novel.  This novel is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.