The Grave Without a Name

Nora Stenberg can see Kettle Hill Cemetery from her bedroom window. She has stayed on her side of the road for four years, ever since her father was buried there.

A school history project finally takes her through the gate. The old cemetery map shows forty-seven graves in the County Section. Nora counts only forty-six markers. Where number thirty-one should be, two stones touch. There isn’t even a gap.

The next morning, a white marble marker stands between them. It has no name. Nobody has crossed the fresh snow. And the marble blank that has leaned against Nora’s family workshop for generations is gone.

With her best friend, Viv, and the sexton’s grandson, Augie, Nora searches burial ledgers, old newspapers, and her family’s unfinished work. Then more stones appear. Letters vanish from familiar names. The next snow brings another change.

At home, an adoption petition carries a new name Nora never chose. On the hill, names are being taken away. To understand what is happening, Nora will have to ask questions her family has left unanswered and decide what she wants to carry forward.

A winter mystery about grief, friendship, family, and the right to be heard.