The Mulberry Tree

Jude Deveraux

9/20/2002

Lillian Manville is the plump, pampered frumpy wife of billionaire James Manville. She doesn't like the jet set life style. She doesn't care if she has lots of money or not. She loves her husband, though, and tolerates it. She also tolerates his brother and sister. She doesn't like them at all. They are mean-spirited, out for the money they can make off their brother.

At the opening of the book, Jimmie's lawyer wakes her up and takes her shopping in the middle of the night. James has died in a plane crash. His will left everything to his siblings and nothing to his wife. Secretly he leaves her a run down farm house in the rural mountains of Virginia. The lawyer is one of Lillian's few friends. He helps her get away before the publicity, Jimmie's brother and sister, or any scandal reaches her. She gets a new look and changes her name.

Bailey James looks around her new home is despair. What can she do now? The only thing she knows how to do is can fruits and cook. Other than that, staff has done everything for her the entire time she was married. Matt Longacre rents part of the house from her and helps her fix it up.

Bailey wants to learn to stand on her own. Jimmie had left one final task for her to complete. There is a mystery here in the small rural town of Calburn. She knows it relates to his youth. She has to find out what happened over 30 years ago before she can find her own strength and peace.

This is a heartwarming piece of fiction. Lillian/Bailey grows into a complete person. We, the readers, see the transition that Deveraux devises for her. There is a period when Bailey realizes she is depending on Matt as much as she did on her husband. She knows this will not do; she has to learn to take care of herself. Once she does, a relationship between the two of them would be right for both. Deveraux keeps the novel light, yet we see the growth Bailey achieves.

The mystery she has to solve is also interesting. The author keeps the secrets coming open slowly. Each new piece ties together with the earlier. Yet up until the end of the book, the reader is tantalized by the mystery of the Golden Six, the young men who gave an identity to the town of Calburn, Virginia.

You can find more reviews for this book, as well as an excerpt, at .