THE OCTOBER COUNTRY: The Lakehouse Nights Collection
Six friends. Twenty-four Octobers. One secret that changes everything.
Mary Howard is sixty-two, recently divorced, and crying in an airport baggage claim when her best friend finds her. She is not supposed to be starting over. She does it anyway.
For a quarter century, six friends have gathered at a New Hampshire lake house for one weekend every October. They have survived divorces, grief, benign scares, and the slow miracle of watching each other age. Now the house is being sold. Now a letter hidden behind a pantry wall reveals a second house—and a third. Now Mary and her unlikely family must decide: is this the end of their Octobers, or the beginning of something bigger?
The October Country collects three novels in one volume. For fans of The Big Chill and Cocoon. Because life doesn't end at sixty. It starts.
Mary Howard writes dark romance from her candlelit farmhouse in upstate New York, where six black cats serve as judgmental beta readers. A former crime journalist turned full-time purveyor of wickedness, Mary doesn't just explore the shadows—she lives there. Her stories blur obsession with devotion, control with surrender, and monstrosity with love. She believes every broken character deserves a chance to break someone else beautifully. When not typing furiously past midnight, Mary is probably plotting your next favorite morally gray antihero. Warning: her happily-ever-afters come with a body count.View all by Mary Howard
