Fiction Feature: The Legacy of a Lie by Ron Elcombe #bookreview #contemporary #fiction #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

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.

Review

It was a very engaging story. The writer really developed the characters, and there were quite a few of them past and present.

The story was very believable and had my interest at the first chapter. It delves deep into the bond of family and how we don't really ever know everything about those in our family tree. Secrets of the past can affect the present and create doubt when you least expect it.

There were so many descriptive moments, it keeps the reader on edge waiting for the next discovery. The author does a great job of painting the past and the motives of past generations.

This is one of those reads that will have you checking in on your own moral compass and have you putting yourself in the characters shoes to think of what you would do.

About the Author

 

 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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