Elizabeth Crook

Meg, the great-granddaughter of a southwestern frontierswoman, accompanies her grandmother to a family property that is being excavated and makes a discovery that challenges the authenticity of stories about her famous family's history.

The Night Journal

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The story mostly centers on Claudia Bass (Bassie) and her granddaughter Meg in the present. Bassie has devoted her life to the care and publication of her mother Hannah's journals of life in early 20th century New Mexico. Meg refuses to read the journals. Construction near Bassie's childhood home prompts her and Meg to return to New Mexico as Bassie is determined to have the bones of her mother's dogs excavated before the construction. Instead of dog bones, they find something else.

The story also spends time in the past via the journals as we get to know Hannah and the 2 men in her life. The journal writing ends abruptly as Hannah ends up in a sanitorium with tuberculosis.

The Night Journal

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