I've been reading Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls, and it wasn't until Eddie, the frail, young heir to the larger-than-life, red-haired, and bearded Duke Kincaid, died, and his eldest sister Mary and her husband Philip came to town to take over the business that I got it.
The story is set in rural Virginia during Prohibition, and it just so happened that Mary's mother was briefly married to the Duke's older brother before he died, and then later Mary and her mother were sent away by the Duke so he could marry his second wife, Annie.
Now Annie is the mother of the main character, the Duke's second daughter, and rumor had it that the Duke killed Annie for infidelity, and shortly after that, he married, Jane, Eddie's mother.
Do you see what I missed?
Maybe the fact that one of the epigraphs is a quote from Queen Elizabeth I is a hint I should have caught. Or perhaps knowing the Duke's given name was Henry? Or that his next wife after Jane died was Katherine?
Don't worry, though, I've got it now, and spoiler alert! I don't think Mary is long for this world.
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