Contemporary Fiction
Date Published: January 15, 2026
Publisher: Windy Ridge Publishing
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.
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.
