Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1895. Bordered by mountains and the mighty Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, the area's scenic beauty is legendary. A dark current is rippling through the town, however, and threatening to tear lives apart.

Ida Mae Parker will soon graduate from high school. Although her parents want her to become a teacher, she yearns to be a professional singer. A descendant of enslaved people, Ida Mae wants to focus on her studies and to stay away from trouble caused by the Jim Crow laws designed to keep Black people from thriving. As racial ugliness targets her own family, though, she struggles to find her place in the world.

Circumstances force Hazel Whitaker to leave her impoverished white family and support herself. Finding only wretched jobs, her survival becomes difficult. She longs to create a better future for herself, but her dearest dream of becoming a photographer seems impossible to achieve.

Hazel and Ida Mae have nothing in common. When fate throws them together, however, an unlikely friendship emerges. After tragedies strike, will supporting each other provide the inner strength that Ida Mae and Hazel need to stand tall for themselves?

Kathleen Ernst is a social historian, educator, and bestselling author. Kathleen's forty-plus published books encompass mysteries, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Between These Rivers is the result of a month-long residency at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. A Most Perilous Journey is the most recent book in the Hanneke Bauer historical mystery series about a newly-arrived German immigrant. The Chloe Ellefson Mysteries feature a museum curator whose knowledge of the past helps solve contemporary crimes. Kathleen's children's books include twenty titles for American Girl.

Honors for Kathleen's work include a National Park Service Residency, multiple Agatha nominations, an Edgar nomination, a Lovey Award for Best Traditional Mystery, the American Heritage Women in the Arts Recognition Award for Literature from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers, the Sterling North Legacy Award for Children's Literature, and an Emmy Award for Children's Instructional Programming.

Kathleen lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin, with her husband Scott and feline muse Eliza.

Livestream: Kathleen Ernst