A First Look at The Righteous Benefactor

Alongside my work on the Dean Mercet series, I’m developing a standalone novel set in Charleston during the 1970s. Its working title is The Righteous Benefactor.

Working cover · Novel in development

The story follows Tom Wren, a young lawyer whose mother asks him to look into a disputed inheritance. His grandfather was a celebrated industrialist: a man who rose from an orphaned childhood to build a boatbuilding enterprise and help sustain the boys’ home that once sheltered him.

Tom begins with a family promise. As he tries to establish what was said, and what can still be proved, he encounters people whose memories do not fit neatly together. Each has something at stake in the account that survives.

What interests me most is the space between loyalty and obligation. A gift can change someone’s life. It can also make disagreement difficult. I want to explore what happens when a family’s gratitude comes into conflict with its need for an honest account of the past.

Charleston’s waterfront, old houses, and enduring complex social connections provide the setting. At the center, though, are a son trying to help his mother and a grandson learning to examine the man he grew up admiring.

The cover shown here is an early working concept. The novel remains in development, and both the story and its presentation may evolve. There is no publication date to announce yet.

I’ll share occasional updates as the project takes shape. For now, this is a first glimpse of the world of The Righteous Benefactor.