Where the Tides Keep Secrets
(2026)(The fourth book in the Later in Life Romance series)
A novel by Peter Jaksa
At fifty-three, marine wildlife veterinarian Mara Ellison thought she was beginning a quieter chapter of her life.
Instead, her new position at a coastal wildlife sanctuary places her at the center of a mystery hidden beneath rehabilitation records, rescue reports, and celebrated release programs. When endangered animals begin disappearing from care under impossible circumstances, Mara is the first person to notice the pattern—and the first person to realize someone inside the conservation world is helping feed the illegal exotic wildlife trade.
The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes.
Assigned to the case is Gabriel Thorne, an INTERPOL wildlife crime investigator who values Mara's meticulous documentation almost as much as he worries about her tendency to walk directly toward trouble carrying nothing but a clipboard and righteous indignation. As the investigation stretches from hidden harbor warehouses to offshore platforms and international trafficking networks, the partnership between the guarded widower and the fiercely independent veterinarian grows into something neither expected and neither can easily ignore.
With endangered species, vulnerable ecosystems, and innocent lives hanging in the balance, Mara must decide how much she is willing to risk to expose the truth—and whether opening her heart again may be the bravest choice of all.
A gripping later-in-life romantic suspense filled with wildlife conservation stakes, found family, witty banter, second chances, and the reminder that courage does not fade with age—and neither does love.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Instead, her new position at a coastal wildlife sanctuary places her at the center of a mystery hidden beneath rehabilitation records, rescue reports, and celebrated release programs. When endangered animals begin disappearing from care under impossible circumstances, Mara is the first person to notice the pattern—and the first person to realize someone inside the conservation world is helping feed the illegal exotic wildlife trade.
The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes.
Assigned to the case is Gabriel Thorne, an INTERPOL wildlife crime investigator who values Mara's meticulous documentation almost as much as he worries about her tendency to walk directly toward trouble carrying nothing but a clipboard and righteous indignation. As the investigation stretches from hidden harbor warehouses to offshore platforms and international trafficking networks, the partnership between the guarded widower and the fiercely independent veterinarian grows into something neither expected and neither can easily ignore.
With endangered species, vulnerable ecosystems, and innocent lives hanging in the balance, Mara must decide how much she is willing to risk to expose the truth—and whether opening her heart again may be the bravest choice of all.
A gripping later-in-life romantic suspense filled with wildlife conservation stakes, found family, witty banter, second chances, and the reminder that courage does not fade with age—and neither does love.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Used availability for Peter Jaksa's Where the Tides Keep Secrets