In its 300-year history, there has never once been a scandal at Mullings, ancestral home of the decent but dull Stodmarsh family. Until, that is, Edward Stodmarsh makes an ill-advised second marriage to the scheming Regina Stapleton, who insists on bringing her family's 'ornamental hermit' to live on the estate. Suddenly everyone wants to visit Mullings to glimpse this mysterious figure. Strange but harmless, thinks Florence Norris, the family's longstanding...

No-nonsense Captain Swashby is used to the sea meeting all of his needs and when, after his retirement, new neighbors disturb his solitary life, the sea helps in just the right way.

"Claire is a young girl, tough-minded and independent. She isn't afraid to explore her world, which is how she encounters the old hermit Lontar. The crazy old coot is inspired by a supernatural revelation he had many years ago. He believes that if he leaves a cave where he has lived for many years, the world will be invaded by dragons. It is his conviction that he must remain in self-imposed exile until the emergence of a true hero, someone who is...

Thirteen-year-old Grace and her eleven-year-old brother Carter are watched by a mountain man when they get lost during a strenuous hike on Blood Mountain.

For readers of Jon Krakauer and The Lost City of Z, a remarkable tale of survival and solitude--the true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins for twenty-seven years. In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human...