A woman ahead of her time wrestles with
a controlling dysfunctional family with many secrets
When Dane, a bright, young reporter from Maryland, jumps into a marriage with Andrew “Beck” Beckford, an aspiring doctor with old New England money, right before he joins the army during World War II, doubts set in. After giving up her career to move to Riverrock, his family’s estate in Massachusetts, and becoming entwined in their knotty private affairs, her concerns multiply. What kind of family did she marry into? There’s Beck’s father, Andrew, a domineering patriarch and president of a Maine paper company who has a strange grip over his docile daughter, Eleanor, and Maud, the matriarch, who’s a master manipulator forever plotting against her husband. Randall, Beck’s older brother, is an enigma. And Beck? He’s like a lost child, crumbling after returning from war. The more skeletons Dane uncovers — those involving deceit, forbidden love, even murder — the more determined she is to untangle herself from the Beckfords’ hold and leave the prison of Riverrock. But with all their wealth, power and vindictiveness toward anyone who crosses them, how will she become free? This intriguing historical and psychological saga, which spans several decades, explores the complex relationships and interplay between the Beckfords and the outsider they let in.
By ANNA DANZER
Edited by ANNA WHITCOMB
368 pages
$19.99
A Book Forty Years in the Making
Anna Danzer, the author, was raised in Hagerstown, Maryland, and graduated from Smith College with a BA in English and Wellesley College with a master’s in English. While at Smith, she was president of the literary magazine. Anna started her career as a local reporter for her hometown newspaper and later became a research analyst for the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities. She continued writing and editing manuscripts and technical manuals for defense contractors, literary magazines, and consulting agencies. She resided in both Cambridge and Carlisle, Massachusetts. She died in 2006.
Anna Whitcomb brings RiverRock to life.
Anna Whitcomb, the editor and author’s daughter, was raised in Cambridge, attended Green Mountain College and received a BS from the University of Vermont. She additionally earned an MPA and CAGS in counseling from Suffolk University. She’s helping to fulfill her mother’s legacy by having Riverrock, a book more than 40 years in the making, finally published.