Samantha: The Next Chapter

Fiona Davis’ Samantha: The Next Chapter features Samantha grown-up from an American Girl to an American Woman–and advocate for women. Her indomitable spirit is unwavering, and Samantha still believes she can do anything she sets her mind to. She aspires to enroll at Teachers College at Columbia University and earn a master's degree. “I want to study ways of teaching that let children learn by going out into the world itself…Where they're encouraged to ask questions and come to their own conclusions instead of being told what to say or what to think.” As her grandmother purported, “it was one's duty to do good…to stay true to [one’s] convictions, to take action.” Her iconic first sampler to Samantha reads, “Actions Speak Louder Than Words. Grandmary lived by those words, too. But Samantha learns sometimes that means holding her tongue. When Grandmary dies, her inheritance is stolen leaving Samantha without access to her allowance or incomes, and she quickly discovers, “Wishes didn't bring about wages.” So Samantha sets out to get a job working full-time as a saleswoman while trying to uncover the fraud. “I fear if I don't do something now, evidence may be gone, opportunities lost, and the men behind this could get away with it. My grandmother would be horrified if her money were taken from her family and used to finance crimes instead of the causes she cared about. And I'm heartbroken to think I might lose the Mount Bedford home.” A fraudulent will, an empty purse, a cabaret, a raid culminate in a reunion with Ricky Strickland who reappears in Samantha’s life as if he'd stepped out of an old summer in Piney Point. But if Ricky is “a tornado in a man's suit,” Tommy Quinn is “a mystery wrapped in a sfogliatella…It was the difference between a will and a crime…I love a splendid turn in the third act…And this one's a real lulu.” In the end, can Samantha still save the day?