Embedded Files
Contemporary Fiction
Date Published: January 15, 2026
Publisher: Windy Ridge Publishing
The Legacy of a Lie unravels a web of family secrets when the past resurfaces, threatening everything its keepers tried to protect. At its center is Maarit McDonough Malone, a brilliant yet flawed budding opera singer whose scandalous choices ripple across generations.
Her daughters—Kay, a celebrated mezzo-soprano, and Anna, a self-doubting composer—must confront the emotional fallout of their mother’s long-buried lies. Alongside them are a young, truth-seeking journalist, a lawyer, and a priest, all carrying the weight of secrets they are professionally and morally bound to keep.
Set in the haunting beauty of Minnesota’s river bluffs and Lake Superior’s North Shore, this is a story of legacy and redemption—of truth breaking through the cracks of deception and healing in the wake of generations of silence.
Excerpt
She turned the radio off as she pulled into the drive-through at the Coffee Stop. The attendant, too perky for the morning hour, wished her a great day and passed a medium coffee with cream but no sugar through the window. Only two meetings were scheduled for the day: the first with her boss at 11:00 a.m. and a division meeting at 1:00. With any luck, she’d escape the office early.
Instead of turning north to I–94 and Saint Paul, the car pulled out of the Coffee-Stop driveway onto the main street and turned south toward Red Wing. Maarit was surprised at the easy merge into the lighter-than-usual highway traffic.
“Why is the sun in my eyes today?” Maarit muttered. “It wasn’t yesterday.” Within a few minutes, where she expected stop lights, stop signs were spaced apart at irregular intervals. Long stretches of unfamiliar road stretched to the horizon. She looked at her watch and frowned. She should have been at work twenty minutes ago. The highway transitioned into a street with no curb or shoulder, then evolved into a narrow gravel road. She tried to turn around, but the car slid off the narrow shoulder into a ditch.
Confusion became fear. The front bumper hit an orange snow fence. The car shuddered. Forward motion ceased. Engine warning lights glowed red throughout the vehicle. Fear became panic. She tried to yell for help, but only a faint whisper escaped her lips. Her head throbbed. Everything blurred. Then, everything went dark as she lost consciousness.
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Ron Elcombe is a professor emeritus at Winona State University (MN), where he taught various advertising and mass communication courses for 25 years. His eclectic career encompasses teaching instrumental music, as well as sales and marketing roles for multiple companies. He has been published in the Lake Country Journal and several professional academic journals and has attended seminars on fiction writing at the Iowa Summer Writers Festival. "The Legacy of a Lie" is the first book in a three-novel series. He resides in Rochester, Minnesota, with his wife, Sharon, and enjoys summers on the golf course and at the family cabin in northern Minnesota.
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Website: https://ronelcombe.com
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