Meg Mitchell Moore’s “Mansion Beach,” published May 27, 2025, is a sharp, Gatsby-inspired novel about class, desire, and the price of secrets. It’s also the perfect complement to your next Block Island Ferry ride.
Nicola Carr, a Minnesota native, has fled Providence — a failed relationship and a worse job — for a rental cottage and an internship as a marine wildlife researcher on Block Island. Like most Rhode Islanders (even transplants), her first instinct in times of distress is to head toward the ocean.
Nicola’s fresh start gets complicated when lavish parties next door introduce her to Juliana George, a fashion-tech CEO with an IPO on the horizon who is quietly pursuing a man from her past — Nicola’s cousin David.
Taylor Buchanan, David’s wife, has built a perfect-appearing life and is not about to let Juliana George threaten it. She has it all — including David — and intends to keep it that way, whatever the cost.
Moore uses these women to examine what comes of the haves and the have-nots in turbulent times. An unsolved murder also haunts the narrative via a true-crime podcast, keeping readers guessing until the book’s final moments.
Moore, a Providence College graduate, describes Block Island with real authority, from the nightlife at Ballard’s to the hushed roads above the bluffs, and unlike the transience most of us experience while visiting the island, presents a gravity most of us will never encounter.
The story unfolds with agility and grace, the characters are profound and complex, and the setting is simply heavenly. Well, to us, at least.
“Mansion Beach” is as satisfying as a long, hot summer in South County.
A Conversation with Meg Mitchell Moore
Q: Block Island has been called one of the best-preserved places in America. For readers who’ve never sailed away on the Block Island Ferry, how would you describe the island’s personality?
A: I would call it eclectic! For such a small island, there is a tremendous amount of geographical variation. There’s variation in the people you see, too, from the daytrippers to the summer homeowners to the year-rounders. I love it.
Q: Do you prefer Rhode Island’s coast or the city?
A: It’s been a while since I’ve spent a lot of time in the city, and it’s changed so much since I was there. It’s a fantastic small city, but I love the coast. Please don’t tell Massachusetts or New Hampshire that I said this, because those are the beaches I frequent now, but I don’t think you can beat Rhode Island’s coast.
Q: Walk us through how you capture a place on the page. Are you there with a notebook, working from memory, Google Maps, or something in between? How do you know Block Island so intimately?
A: It’s a combination of all of those. When I first started writing about the island, I was brand new to it. I made a lot of visits at different times of the year. I’ve had some local people answer questions for me. I do a lot of online research, use maps, and read the Block Island Times.
Q: What’s your favorite drink from Ballard’s?
Q: The tension between ‘old money’ summer people and everyone else is a fact of New England island life. Rhode Islanders know that dynamic very well. How conscious were you of tapping into that class divide as you built Juliana and Taylor’s worlds?
A: I am fascinated by that divide. That’s been a theme of other novels of mine, too, and I think it will continue to be. I am endlessly interested in what money or lack of money means for different people, and I’m also interested in how the sudden acquisition of money affects a person versus how life is for someone who grew up surrounded by it.
* ‘Between the Lines’ is a monthly book review column from freelance reporter Stephanie Bernaba. For the full story, pick up a copy of this week's Independent on newsstands now or purchase a subscription to our E-Edition by clicking here.