Paradise

About the Paradise series

The Paradise trilogy opens with Irene Steele learning that her husband Russ has died in a helicopter crash off the coast of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and that the settled, comfortable life she thought she had with him was, in fact, a carefully maintained double life. Irene and her two adult sons travel to St. John to claim his body and instead uncover a second household, hidden business dealings, and a set of secrets that unravel across all three books. It's a departure in tone from Hilderbrand's Nantucket-set work: still character-driven and romantic, but built around a genuine mystery plot that pays off cumulatively.

Winter in Paradise sets up the mystery, What Happens in Paradise digs into the buried business dealings and relationships Russ left behind, and Troubles in Paradise closes out the Steele family's story. Despite the echo of "Winter" in the first title, this is not a continuation of Hilderbrand's separate Winter Street series -- the Steeles share no characters with the Quinn family of that Nantucket-set Christmas series.