Kenly Lowen is forced to confront her painful past when a close childhood friend dies and relinquishes to her a box containing a devastating secret.

William Lyon's past forced him to become someone he isn't. Conflicted and unable to maintain the charade, he separates from his wife and takes a job as caretaker at a former mental hospital. Jelley’s Valley State Insane Asylum was the largest mental hospital in California for well over a century, but it now stands empty. William thinks the decrepit institution is the perfect place to finish his dissertation and wait for his divorce to become final. In town, William meets Colby Anderson, who minds the local store and post office. Unlike William, Colby is cute, upbeat, and flamboyantly out. Although initially put off by Colby’s mannerisms, William comes to value their new friendship, and even accepts Colby's offer to ease him into the world of gay sex. William’s self-image begins to change when he discovers a tin box, hidden in an asylum wall since the 1940s. It contains letters secretly written by Bill, a patient who was sent to the asylum for being homosexual. The letters hit close to home, and William comes to care about Bill and his fate. With Colby’s help, he hopes the words written seventy years ago will give him courage to be his true self.

Kenly Alister is a Grownup. Unlike those who sail through life taking what they want regardless of how their actions affect others, Kenly cleans up other people's messes, picks up the pieces, and is the one who others turn to for solace. As the child of an alcoholic, she weathered abuse and sadness and emerged from childhood determined to bring comfort and happiness to those she loves. While in college she fell for Ross Lowen. Ross wasn't looking for someone to take care of him--he wanted a lover, a friend, and a partner. In Kenly he found not only all that but a woman whose capacity for love and kindness bowled him over. The last fifteen years have been good to them and Kenly basks in the glow of a wonderful marriage. An as an extral bonus she revels in their son who, even in his most arrogant, adolescent moments, still has the ability to take Kenly's breath away. This happy life is threatened when her dearest childhood friend dies and Kenly receives an old battered tin box, a relic of her childhood. Inside are the remnants of Kenly's past and a secret she has sheltered for decades. To reveal the secret means the destruction of her happy family--but can she continue to shoulder the weight of years of silence? The Tin Box is an achingly beautiful novel of one woman's desire to save all that she loves while honoring the past that made her into the woman she is. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Reproduction of the original: The Tin Box by Horatio Alger

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