The Disappointment of Annie Brooks by R.L. Napolitano

Annie Brooks is a retired schoolteacher who has lived in a beachfront home on Cape Cod her entire life. Every morning, Annie takes a walk along the water's edge to begin her day, not for exercise, but for contemplation and honest reflection on her life, the paths she chose willingly, and those others have forced her to walk. All too often, that reflection is weighted in regret and disappointment. Disappointment of family and friends, and regrets in the choices made because of those disappointments. There have been mistakes that she cannot make amends for, decisions from the past that cannot be altered. "No one gets to my age," Annie shares with Laura Kingston, "without regrets in their lives." Laura Kingston, a reporter for a small local newspaper, is writing a feature article on Annie. But it soon becomes apparent that Laura has more than a reporter's interest in Annie. There are secrets in the past of both women, and during the summer of 1991 those secrets are laid bare one by one, culminating in a disastrous storm that finally reveals the brutal truth.