“Silence isn’t golden. It’s white and it kills.” So observes Vivian Bixby as her friends and neighbors quietly condone the infamous Indiana KKK. The year is 1923. Vivian aches to escape her small town by any means necessary, including marriage. Against a backdrop of speakeasies and exotic animal shows, church gossip and cross burnings, Vivian prepares to wed Stuart Glynn, millionaire and rising politician. Heir to the Glynn Glass Company, Stuart can give Vivian everything she wants—not money, but what money can buy: culture, travel, security. But Vivian finds her own ambitions as a budding journalist at odds with Stuart’s need for a compliant wife who avoids controversy.
As Stuart Glynn seeks to stifle Vivian, Leo Messina encourages her to speak out against the Klan. An idealistic young reporter from Chicago, Leo believes he can change the world one mind at a time, one news column at a time. He defies all warnings and attends the huge Konklave in Kokomo, which lands him—and Vivian—in a jam. But when a dead body turns up in the woods and the trail leads back to the Glynn family, Leo’s investigation angers the wrong people, including Vivian. Suddenly she must decide which dreams to sacrifice—and which people are worth the price. White Picket Silence explores the tension between comfort and conscience, and how love can shatter hate like a stone thrown against glass.
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Twila Sky 