Imagine life in old Key West . . .

Mary Thorne should already have married, but Michael was lost at sea, a victim of his own foolishness. Her father persuades her to accept the hand of Richard Randall, a wrecker. It will be a marriage of convenience for them both, but better than nothing. When Mary learns about her father's dark secret, the knowledge drives her closer to Richard. Then the Great Hurricane of 1846 lures them to Key West to profit from the rebuilding.

Mary leaves her family behind and places all her hopes on her husband and her children-to-come. As events unfold, suspenseful and often surprising, Mary struggles to maintain her independence and reconcile her ideals with the realities of life in Key West in the mid-1800's.

This gripping and affecting historic novel, Sand Dollar, overflows with the sights, sounds and smells of the mid-19th Century Florida Tropics, making an auspicious debut for novelist, Jane Newhagen.

Brewster Milton Robertson, A Posturing of Fools (River City Publishing, 2004)

Jane Louise Newhagen was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Brown University and has lived up and down the east coast of the United States and in Paris, France.

Today she lives and writes in Key West. Click here to visit her web site at www.janenewhagen.com where you will find useful discussion questions for readers circles and book groups and some little-known facts about Key West.