He came from Ireland with her grandmother's name in his folder.
He was dead before he could explain why.

Genealogist Maggie Penhallow has spent a career finding other people's ancestors. Now a retired Irish schoolteacher named Séamus Kearney has crossed the Atlantic with something she never expected: a 1908 Ellis Island ship manifest with her grandmother's name on it ? and evidence of a secret that Bridie Kelly carried from County Cork to Vermont and protected in silence for the rest of her life.

When Séamus is found drowned in the Millbrook River the morning after their first meeting, the folder he carried ? the manifests, the deeds, the parish records ? is gone.

Someone in Millbrook knew why he came. And needed him to leave before he could tell her.

Following the trail Séamus left behind, Maggie must navigate the Ellis Island arrival records, a 1908 Queenstown departure manifest, and the devastating gap left by the 1922 destruction of Ireland's Public Record Office ? all while a killer watches her get closer to the truth that a boarding house on Main Street has always been hers.

The answer is in the records. It always is.

For fans of Richard Osman, Louise Penny, and every reader who has ever wondered why their Irish great-grandmother never talked about the old country.

The Last Letter Home is the fourth book in the Millbrook Genealogy Mystery series ? and the book the series has been building toward since page one of Book 1. Real Ellis Island research. Real Irish records. And a grandmother's silence finally explained.

The Millbrook Genealogy Mystery Series

Book 1: The Buried Branch ? The 1900 census. A hidden heir. A body in the woods. Available now.

Book 2: Not the Parent Expected ? DNA. A half-brother. A death. Available now.

Book 3: A Grave Inheritance ? Quebec parish records. A drowned woman. A dit name. Available now.

Book 4: The Last Letter Home ? Ireland. A ship manifest. The truth about Bridie Kelly. You are here.

Clean read. No graphic violence. Slow-burn romance reaching its peak. Real Irish genealogy technique at the back of the book.