Essie Myles is an active and sharp-minded 83-year-old widow living in a small town in Nebraska,
where she writes obituaries for the local newspaper ran by her grandson, Doc. She likes to get all the facts straight when she writes the final accounting of the lives of the recently dead - the well-known and good right alongside the secrets and bad stuff.
Doc and his sister were orphaned at an early age.
After his sister left a young daughter and moved away to Paris, Doc raised this young teen and is hurt when she chooses to go live with Essie, her great-grandmother with whom she is very close.
The paper's printing press has been rolling night and day lately after being hired to print a highly anticipated young adult book - the final entry in a series, and one whose plot the author is trying very hard to keep secret.
Add to all that drama a child kidnapping… maybe. A local woman claims that her photographer boyfriend has abducted her young daughter, Lenore. Problem is, Lenore is said to have been born at home with no birth certificate and home-schooled; no one has actually
ever seen her.
Is she a figment of her mother’s imagination, a play for attention, or a child in jeopardy?
Essie sets about investigating the mystery as Lenore's fate garners growing
widespread attention. Soon people are camped outside the local woman’s home and seem to form a cult. Then bits of the book that Essie's grandson is printing
are leaked, and national news floods the little town.
Essie and the inhabitants of this little town make The Coffins of Little Hope a wonderful,
completely enjoyable read, unbowed by multiple plot lines and peopled with
characters any reader would like to meet personally.