Synopsis: Living or Dead

Seventeen year old loner Natalie Bean always had a gift with words.

But when she writes herself into a fictional love scene that her hero--and fellow classmate--vivdly remembers as fact, she begins to wonder just how gifted she really is.

Then, a stranger slips an invitation under her door. It asks her to join the Scribes in Abendstille, a private island of self-professed hermits off the turbulant coast of northern Maine. Anxious to leave her confusion, absentee mother, and loneliness behind, she sets off for the island.

When she arrives, she expects to find an island of kindred souls and a quiet place to write. Instead, she is greeted by murder, suspicion, and a startling truth about the gift she now wishes she could give back.